KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah was on Friday informed that there were 2.6 million off-grid households in the province and the provincial government was going to provide 500,000 of them Solar Home Systems (SHS) under the World Bank-sponsored Sindh Solar Energy Project in the first phase.

A meeting, held at the CM House, decided to implement the PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari’s programme to provide free-of-cost electricity to off-grid consumers and to those using 50 to 100 units of electricity by implementing the solar energy solution.

A statement issued from the CM House said that the meeting, attended among others by Energy Minister Nasir Shah, Chief Secretary Asif Hyder Shah and Energy Secretary Musadiq Khan, discussed several proposal to implement the solar energy project across the province.

The CM said that a 100-watt SHC was enough to power three LED bulbs, a 35-watt DC fan and a six-hour battery back-up with mobile charging ports.

Rs25bn needed to power 2.6m off-grid households with solar power, energy minister tells Murad

Minister Nasir Shah told the CM that the cost of an SHS comes to around Rs50,000 each and the total cost for 2.6m SHS would be around Rs25 billion.

He told the meeting that the energy department had worked out that around 80,000 households were using 50 units of electricity per month.

They include 441,483 in KE jurisdiction, 229,338 in the jurisdiction of the Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (HescO), and 125,500 in Sukkur Electric Power Company (Sepco).

Similarly, the number of households using 100 units per month comes to 1.9m, with 1,054,000 in Karachi (KE), 566,427 in the Hyderabad region (Hesco), and 356,073 in the Sukkur region (Sepco).

The CM said that six micro-grids, each one of 75kW, could be established in all six divisions as a pilot project to cover a 100-household cluster. These grids could provide electricity to households consuming 100 kWh.

Three solar parks

The chief minister proposed that three solar parks, each one of 305 MW may be established to provide electricity to KE, Hesco and Sepco to provide onward to the on and off-grid household.

Mr Shah directed the energy minister to prepare proposals for solar parks and SHS so that one of both proposals could be discussed and approved.

He also directed the chief secretary to collect data for SHS consumers. “This will help to make decisions,” he added.

The $100m project was signed between the federal government and the WB in January 2019 with the objective to increase solar power generation and access to electricity in the province. However, it has been progressing with a snail’s pace since its inception.

The provincial government holds the former federal government’s obstructive policies and Covid-19 pandemic for the delay in the execution of the project.

Sources said that during the past five years, solar-powered systems have been installed on the premises of 33 public hospitals and health centres, while rooftops of 24 government buildings have also been used to install solar energy systems under the WB project.

Published in Dawn, July 20th, 2024