KARACHI: Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Thursday said that the provincial government was striving for socio-economic sustainable development through green energy initiatives in line with international commitments.

“Apart from the development of indigenous Thar coal, various other projects have been completed so far,” he said while speaking at the inauguration ceremony for the distribution of Solar-Home-System (SHS) by Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari.

The CM said that the completed projects included the development of a wind corridor in Jhampir, District Thatta, where 1,845 MW of power was being produced. “Additionally, 40 public sector buildings, mostly hospitals, have been equipped with rooftop solar panels with a capacity of 26 MW,” he said, adding that 352 rural health centres had also been solarised with a standard 3KW solar system.

Moreover, the chief minister said, as many as 24 schemes for the solarisation of public sector schools, colleges, primary healthcare facilities, jails, and government buildings are underway. “The solar programme has been further accelerated, and during the current year, 656 government schools would be equipped with solar power,” he added.

Says several on-grid and off-grid projects are underway

He applauded Bilawal Bhutto’s interest in providing the quick delivery of solar systems to the common people in line with the party election manifesto of free electricity units of up to 300 units.

According to the chief minister, the provincial energy department has collected the figures for the numbers of households having up to 300 units of electricity consumption and it was revealed that 2.6 million households have no access to electricity, 2.4m households have a consumption of less than 100 units, 0.37m households have a consumption of less than 200 units and 0.498m households have a consumption of less than 300 units.

“We have developed a comprehensive plan to fulfil the party manifesto during the five-year tenure through multiple programmes, including free provision of SHS to the poor and the provision of small SHS on a cost-sharing basis with inverter and batteries through interest-free loans,” he said, adding that several green energy projects on-grid and off-grid had been initiated to achieve these targets.

The CM disclosed that an expression of interest had been floated for various options of SHS through off-grid DC systems and on-grid AC systems with the provision of batteries and inverter. He added that Rs10 billion had been allocated during this year’s budget.

He said that the mini, micro and smart grids with state-of-the-art technology in various villages were to be operated on a community-sharing model. “The provincial government will bear the capital installation costs, and the operating costs will be borne by the beneficiaries through community-based services for which Rs720m has been allocated for 2024-25,” he added.

The chief minister said that the micro grids with small wind turbines hybrid with solar in the coastal belt of the province had wind potential available in abundance and added that 172 public sector buildings would be shifted to solar during the current financial year.

He said that several green projects with new technologies had been initiated for the first time in the country and were being pushed on a fast-track basis. “They include two solar parks in Karachi with 270 MW Capacity (150 MW in Malir & 120 MW in Distt West),” he said, adding that both the projects were in the final stages of the bidding process and a 50 MW waste to energy project in Karachi was also in the advanced stage.

The chief minister said that a four MW floating solar project on the water supply pond of Water and Sanitation Authority Hyderabad, 500 MW green hydrogen project, 350 MW wind-solar hybrid with Battery Energy Storage System were in the pipeline.

He said exorbitant energy prices had severely damaged the socio-economic fabric of the country.

Published in Dawn, August 30th, 2024