The demise of strategic electricity resource planning on February 28, 2020The days of long-term strategic planning in the electric utility business are already over. As the industry undergoes an unprecedented transformation, unleashed mainly by technology-driven disruptive market forces in the past decade, almost all aspects of this hundred-and-forty years old and stable industry have come under critical scrutiny-the physical infrastructure, the institutional setup, the business […]
National Electricity Policy 2020: High in Intent but Low in Content on February 15, 2020After almost 18 months of homework and deliberation, the Power Division of the Ministry of Energy has finally unveiled the draft of National Electricity Policy 2020 which now will be presented to the Council of Common Interests (CCI) for its approval. A quick visit at the draft should be sufficient to reveal that it’s tall […]
Of mice, mousetraps, and photovoltaics on February 4, 2020“Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door.” This quote is perhaps a distorted version of another somewhat lengthy saying from the American essayist and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson. It’s very popular in business circles, however, and is often used to highlight the importance of imagination, creativity, and innovation […]
Power sector reforms: time for a model recall on January 23, 2020“There you have it-reform on unprepared ground, and copied from foreign institutions as well-nothing but harm.” Fyodor Dostoesky (The Brothers Karamazov) During the early part of the 1990s, a new paradigm was imposed on the power sectors of many developing countries, including Pakistan, largely with the support of World Bank Group. It aimed at improving […]
Simplifying the electricity bills on January 15, 2020“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.” (Albert Einstein) James Bonbright in his 1961 landmark, and by now a classic, treatise “Principles of Public Utility Rates”,recommends that to be effective these rates must be: (i) forward-looking and reflecting long-run costs; (ii) focus on the most cost-sensitive components of consumer demand; (iii) […]
Pakistan’s power sector needs a new vision on January 5, 2020“P eople and their managers are working so hard to be sure things are done right, that they hardly have time to decide if they are doing the right things.” (Steven R. Covey, author of “The Seven Habits of Highly-effective people”) National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) has dealt yet another blow to the electricity […]
CHALLENGES OF RENEWABLE ENERGY on January 4, 2020In first part of this article, we briefly discussed the four new and emerging trends that have been posing serious risks and challenges to the traditional way of supplying and delivering electricity to consumers. In this part, we will identify a number of ways in which our government and power sector entities can not only […]
CHALLENGES OF RENEWABLE ENERGY on January 4, 2020Some new and disruptive business forces are rendering the traditional electric utility business model obsolete and it may not serve adequatelyto accomplish our government’s strategic goals in the power sector. It is, therefore, imperative that the electricity supply and delivery business in the country be recast along a more dynamic, flexible, and innovative lines to […]
A Plan for capacity expansion on January 4, 2020While the Indicative Generation Capacity Expansion Plan (IGCEP) 2018-40, recently submitted by National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) to NEPRA for review and approval, is a carefully-crafted comprehensive plan, it misses on some features that an “indicative” plan was supposed to have. Since, preparing of this plan by NTDC is an annual regulatory requirement, some […]
Alternative and Renewable Energy Policy 2019: A Classic Case of Moving Backward on December 20, 2019Energy policies are important instruments that governments use to guide and influence the participation and behaviors of different actors in the energy sector activities to achieve their desired objectives and goals. While efficacy, efficiency, costs, and benefits are important considerations in energy policy formulation, continuity of policies is also a key factor in gaining and […]