According to a latest development, the Alternative Energy Development Board (AEDB) is being merged with the Private Power and Infrastructure Board (PPIB). Whether it is forced by the persistent financial crunch the government of Pakistan is facing since long to run mega projects or departments or the experts have realized the desperate need for installing a major reformed structure of energy sector, the possible merger will prove to be a target-oriented step. PPIB, established in 1991, acts as a one-stop shop for investors and provides support to negotiate power-purchasing agreements. The Board also assists Nepra in determining and approving tariffs for new private power projects.
The Policy for Power Generation Projects 2002 confirms that electricity will be purchased and tariffs will be set through a process called international competitive bidding. While the Alternative Energy Development Board (AEDB), founded in 2003, has been established to promote all environmental friendly alternative energy resources that have not been developed in Pakistan mainly due to the absence of a high-level national body. Since its inception the most important accomplishment of AEDB has been the creation of awareness amongst the decision makers regarding the importance of utilizing resources in the country. Since long the country is witnessing a proliferation of regulatory agencies, one each per subject or sub-subject, providing plum jobs to majority of retired bureaucrats on heavy salary packages. For instance, Nepra and Ogra, the two state orgnisations working on inter-related sectors – electricity and oil & gas – more or less have the same assignments. This virtually uniform jobs is not serving the purpose in any way rather have multiplied financial burden on the already cash-starved government which is presently removing tax exemptions on various sectors and facilities to narrow down the financial deficit.
Similarly, the AEDB could have been a cell of PPIB instead of being an expensive full-fledged organisation, and might have produced better results in the past. PPIB is not a different case as far as the delivery rate is concerned. The Board has now become stale and outmoded as it is disliked by the stakeholders and is nothing more than just another stop in the process with no facilitating contribution. The USAID has recently indicated to the top government authorities that it is hesitant to extend $320 million funding for the proposed Gharo windmills to generate 150 MW to the AEDB that has miserably failed to produce even a single megawatt of electricity for the last more than seven years. The 450 MW project could have helped avert the prevailing gas and power crisis, however, the AEDB’s total failure in producing power has badly dented the international donors’ confidence in the Board.
Dozens of hydropower projects, IPPs and controversial rental power plants (RPPs) are not progressing according to the agreed schedule due to total failure to take timely decisions by the Ministry of Water and Power and its attached organisations, including Wapda, Pepco and PPIB. The major problem with these orgnisations has been the unclear demarcation of roles and mandates to handle the energy sector. However, the possible merger of AEDB in PPIB has rekindled the hopes that it would post some progress towards renewable energy production.
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