LAHORE: Federal Minister for Vitality Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari on Sunday stated the federal government had no plans to finish the coverage of photo voltaic net-metering.
The minister’s remarks got here within the wake of media stories, claiming that the federal government was scrapping the coverage and changing it with a brand new gross-metering mechanism.
Internet metering permits customers to promote extra electrical energy produced by their photo voltaic system to their energy distribution firm, leading to important financial savings of their electrical energy invoice for the month.
Nevertheless, beneath the gross metering mechanism, the electrical energy generated by customers’ rooftop photo voltaic programs is fed into the nationwide grid, which they are going to then purchase from the disco, doubtlessly decreasing the financial profit.
Whereas talking at a press convention on the Lahore Electrical Provide Firm (Lesco) headquarters, the minister rejected the media stories and stated the federal government would encourage the shift to solar energy because the coverage was the brainchild of the PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif, who ordered to put it on the market in his final tenure as prime minister.
“[PML-N] introduced this scheme [solar net-metering] in 2017. And we are going to proceed encouraging the web metering since it’s the scheme near the guts of PM Shahbaz Sharif,” the minister stated.
He added the celebration was “proud” of the scheme as “a lot of folks benefitted from it”.
Mr Leghari assured that customers who had already put in solar energy and had a net-metering contract with the Disco “wouldn’t be affected in any respect”.
The federal government will encourage internet metering in future too and any change within the coverage can be made after taking all stakeholders into confidence, he added.
He stated when the coverage was launched in 2017, only a few folks utilized for net-metering licences because of the excessive costs of the photo voltaic panel.
Over time, the variety of customers making use of for internet metering has elevated, and in 2023-24, the quantity went up by 125pc, he maintained.
He claimed that 0.3pc of the whole electrical energy customers have rooftop photo voltaic net-metering connections. “The variety of whole internet metering connections has reached 113,000.”
Speaking about different points in energy sectors, he stated the general demand for electrical energy has diminished by 8pc resulting from a decline in industrial progress.
To a query, he stated he the Lesco CEO has been directed to finish deal with system constraints to stop it from overloading in sizzling climate.
With out naming the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa authorities, the minister expressed displeasure that “one province has made the problem of energy theft political”.
He additionally expressed hope that the KP CM would current “a viable plan” within the subsequent 15 days for controlling energy theft.
Revealed in Daybreak, Might twentieth, 2024