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Friday November 01, 2024
Syed Akhtar Ali
Syed Akhtar Ali

  • November 06, 2023

    Entering the carbon market

    Motorists queue to refill their vehicles with Compressed Natural Gas at a CNG station in Peshawar. — AFP/FileCNG burns cleaner than petrol and...

  • September 12, 2023

    A push for solar geysers

    After the electricity tariff, the gas tariff is poised to be enhanced as well. The average tariff will likely increase by 50 per cent.There is a...

  • January 23, 2023

    Giving e-bikes a boost

    The government has announced a financing package to promote the sale of e-bikes. These environmentally friendly bikes have the potential to...

  • December 29, 2022

    How to conserve energy

    Oil imports have decreased by 26 per cent in the first five months of the current fiscal year . Crude oil imports have fallen by 16 per cent, diesel...

  • November 07, 2022

    Part - II: A winter without gas?

    Gas and electricity prices have become politically sensitive issues. The IMF compares prices in dollars, which shows that energy price hikes are...

  • November 05, 2022

    A winter without gas? Part - I

    Winter has almost arrived. There is usually a high gas demand in this season but gas shortages in the winter have become a norm in Pakistan. Local...

  • October 03, 2022

    A new power plan : Part - II

    The new Indicative Generation Capacity Expansion Plan mentions nuclear energy. The nuclear option is limited to the addition of one plant of...

  • October 01, 2022

    A new power plan : Part I

    The National Transmission and Despatch Company has released a new version of the Indicative Generation Capacity Expansion Plan . As the name...

  • August 22, 2022

    Petrol controversy

    It is advised that policymakers analyze and look into opportunities for price reduction

  • August 12, 2022

    Analysing petrol prices

    The highly volatile rupee-dollar exchange rate makes petrol prices’ analysis or comparisons quite difficult.

  • July 30, 2022

    Local but complicated

    International fuel prices have been increasing consistently for the last few months. The prices of imported coal have increased three times their...

  • July 23, 2022

    Planning for power

    At a time when the country is facing severe power shortages, talk about expanding electricity generation should attract people’s attention. The...

  • July 16, 2022

    A recurring winter’s tale

    Electricity supply issues among rising local energy costs – both at producers and consumers’ ends – combined with power plant defects, high...

  • July 02, 2022

    The rising oil prices

    In Pakistan, petroleum prices were raised yet again to Rs248.74 per litre for petrol and Rs 276.54 for diesel. This is the fourth time petroleum...

  • May 28, 2022

    Oil prices and efficient buying

    The government has increased petroleum prices by Rs30 per litre. The increase is uniform against all products. There was much talk about some...

  • March 30, 2022

    The future of electric vehicles [Part - II]

    Are electric vehicles economical or affordable? Although an EV may not be exactly economical, it is fast approaching the required cost objectives....

  • March 29, 2022

    The future of electric vehicles [Part I]

    Electric vehicles are thought to be an essential player in reducing oil demand. The former Danish minister for climate, energy and utilities, Dan...

  • March 12, 2022

    Emerging biogas

    The writer is a former member of the Energy Planning Commission and author of ‘Pakistan’s Energy Issues: Success and Challenges’.The...

  • March 07, 2022

    Shifting to Thar lignite

    Pakistan has 180 billion tonnes of lignite coal deposits, which have the potential of firing 1800 power plants of 1000 MW for 30 years or 500 power...

  • February 26, 2022

    Fuel for a motorbike

    The writer is a former member of the Energy Planning Commission and author of ‘Pakistan’s Energy Issues: Success and Challenges’.The prices of...

  • February 17, 2022

    Energy efficiency [Part - II]

    In the first part of the article, we discussed how innovation in products is playing a major role in energy conservation. Innovation and upgrades in...

  • February 16, 2022

    Energy efficiency [Part - I]

    The writer is a former member of the Energy Planning Commission and author of ‘Pakistan’s Energy Issues: Success and Challenges’.The idea that...

  • February 08, 2022

    The national electricity plan (Part - II)

    It seems that the government of Pakistan is sceptical about talks of an open market regime in the power sector. In the meanwhile, it is letting...

  • February 07, 2022

    The national electricity plan: Part - I

    Complying with the recently introduced requirements of the Nepra Act, the power division has prepared the first draft of the National Electricity...

  • January 31, 2022

    Going green?

    The government has imposed a 17 percent sales tax on the import of solar PV equipment. Solar traders have protested against it and consider it an...

  • January 13, 2022

    Accommodating local interests

    The writer is a former member of the Energy Planning Commission and author of ‘Pakistan’s Energy Issues: Success and Challenges’.Pakistan has...

  • January 03, 2022

    Diversifying gas use

    The writer is a former member of the Energy Planning Commission and author of ‘Pakistan’s Energy Issues: Success and Challenges’.The gas...

  • December 11, 2021

    Fertiliser exports?

    Some fertiliser manufacturers in the country have requested for permission to export their surplus stock so that they can compete in the...

  • November 28, 2021

    Our energy strategy (Part – II)

    The first part of this article talked about Pakistan’s heavy reliance on gas-based power. Thar coal is a major energy source in the country. This...

  • November 27, 2021

    Our energy strategy - Part I

    The Glasgow Climate Conference has ended with a renewed commitment of 200 nations to climate change goals, among scepticism and criticism by...

  • November 01, 2021

    Solar-wind hybrid projects

    By 2030, Pakistan will have around 60 percent market share of renewable energy sources about half of which will come out of solar and wind. This...

  • October 10, 2021

    Nepra: performance issues - Part II

    The first part of this series ‘Performance issues’ talked about the performance issues of the power sector. This part will deal with the...

  • October 09, 2021

    Nepra: performance issues - Part I

    The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority recently released its annual state of industry report. This publication is an authentic source of...

  • October 04, 2021

    Beyond Thar coal

    China has announced, at international forums, that it won’t finance any new coal-fired power plant project outside its country anymore. This has...

  • September 25, 2021

    Energy: projects and potential

    The writer is a former member of the Energy Planning Commission and author of ‘Pakistan’s Energy Issues: Success and Challenges’.A rather ugly...

  • August 28, 2021

    Provincial gas issues

    The Sindh energy minister has been raising the issue of gas supply to Sindh and loadshedding. He says Sindh produces more gas than it consumes, and...

  • July 24, 2021

    Pricing petrol

    Petrol prices were increased on July 15 in Pakistan by Rs5.40/litre to a level of Rs118/litre, while diesel prices were raised by Rs2.54/litre to a...

  • May 26, 2021

    Controlling circular debt

    The circular debt issue is getting more serious by the day and the worst has yet to come with the installation of new capacity while demand...

  • April 30, 2021

    How to control circular debt

    The writer is a former member of the Energy Planning Commission and author of ‘Pakistan’s Energy Issues: Success and Challenges’.It was...

  • April 01, 2021

    Caveats and reform proposals

    The government has announced its plans to increase the power tariff by Rs5.65 per unit – an estimated 40 percent increase. Gas utilities have...

  • March 17, 2021

    District heating and cooling

    Except for Karachi, Pakistan has extreme cold and hot weather in the respective seasons. With rising standards among the higher economic classes,...

  • February 27, 2021

    LNG business

    LNG contains two forms of energy – one measured in terms of Calorific Value , which is widely recognized, and the other known as cold energy,...

  • February 14, 2021

    Alternative energy

    It is increasingly becoming clear that RLNG has issues of irregular pricing and other supply chain issues like availability of infrastructure.In the...

  • January 14, 2021

    The power blackout

    The whole country went into a power blackout on Sunday night. This is a technical issue requiring serious investigation and a non-political...

  • January 08, 2021

    Too little, too late, too expensive

    The writer is a former member of the Energy Planning Commission and author of ‘Pakistan’s Energy Issues: Success and Challenges’.Prime...

  • December 28, 2020

    The oil report

    The Oil Inquiry Commission was formed by the Lahore High Court in the wake of the oil crisis which occurred last June. Its report has been submitted...

  • December 11, 2020

    The smog season

    Smog is back, in parts of Sindh and almost all of Punjab. Smog causes ENT sicknesses, can worsen existing heart and lung problems and causes eye...

  • November 09, 2020

    Dealing with the gas crisis

    The writer is a former member of the Energy Planning Commission and author of ‘Pakistan’s Energy Issues: Success and Challenges’.Local gas...

  • September 07, 2020

    Pepco revival: more to be done

    The Pakistan Electric Power Company has been revised under a legal arrangement of being a “Managing Agent”. The role of Pepco, briefly...