Govt to invite advices on national energy policy

ISLAMABAD: The government will invite suggestions from all the stakeholders to enforce the National Energy Efficiency and Conservation Act 2016, an official said on Thursday. 

“The draft national policy for an integrated implementation approach following the much-awaited legislation would be shared with all the stakeholders for their feedback within the next couple of weeks,” said executive Asad Mahmood at National Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (NEECA), speaking at a roundtable of Institute of Policy Studies (IPS).

IPS hosted the session to review the implementation strategy of National Energy Efficiency and Conservation Act 2016.

The legislation led to the formulation of NEECA, which is mandated to ensure conservation and efficient use of energy in all sectors of the economy, establish institutions, stipulate mechanisms and procedures for energy saving potential, and help mitigate adverse effects of climate change.

Mahmood said the authority is in its formation phase. “There are a lot of challenges ahead to institutionalise the implementation of the law and constitute an infrastructure.”

He said a number of pilot projects, such as energy efficiency labeling of fans manufactured in Pakistan, setting up of quality testing labs in all the provinces and planning for appliance replacement programs have already been initiated.

Energy experts stressed the need to improve the governance and efficiency of state-owned power generation and distribution companies, which cause a loss of one-third of electricity produced in a year.

Ex-secretary water and power Ashfaq Mahmood said the government should incentivise domestic as well as industrial consumers to meet the objectives of energy efficiency and conservation. “Energy service managers in the developed countries have enabled industries to be more and more energy efficient,” Mahmood said.

He added that the appliance replacement program would also fall victim to the bureaucratic approach if the private sector is not actively involved and a credit line is not made available through banks and financial institutions for the industry.

The energy efficiency law led to the establishment of Pakistan Energy Efficiency and Conservation Board, comprising of private and public sector’s officials.

Mahmood termed the board ‘overtly bureaucratic’. He said the board consists of all the federal and provincial secretaries as well as chairmen of regulatory authorities, “who were cause of the problems in the energy sector.”

“It is nearly impossible to gather them once a year for any meeting let alone expect them to provide a strategic vision or implementation plan for energy conservation and oversee it,” he said. Ex-secretary said NEECA, however, in its initial phase, is focusing on efficiency and quality of the supply side, which was not the case earlier.