Pakistan puts 5 GW of solar at risk with planned FiT slash - report

Pakistan's National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) will hold a hearing on Thursday for its planned 40% cut of governmental power tariffs, which may put at stake 5,000 MW of upcoming photovoltaic (PV) projects in the country.

Such significant solar power capacity is estimated to require a total investment of roughly USD 7.5 billion (EUR 6.6bn), The News International said today. Reducing local feed-in-tariffs (FiTs) may discourage both domestic and foreign investors to help the renewable energy sector in Pakistan partially offset the 7,000-MW energy deficit which the country faces, unnamed industry officials were quoted as saying on Wednesday.

The regulator launched the incentive in May, aiming to attract funding for Pakistan’s PV industry. It also made the output of the 100-MW first phase of the 1-GW Quaid-e-Azam solar park in Punjab province a standard for evaluating the tariff for future projects -- a move that is considered to be a mistake by many sector players, according to the report.

Despite the planned revision of the FiT, NEPRA recently set an official 10-year power purchase rate of PKR 19.02 (USD 0.18/EUR 0.16) per kWh for AJ Power Pvt Ltd’s 12-MW solar farm in Punjab, according to The Nation. This is one of the highest tariffs in Pakistan’s whole energy mix.

(USD 1.0 = EUR 0.874)

(PKR 100 = USD 0.958/EUR 0.837)

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