Wind sources acquire greater importance in energy mix

Govt decides to enhance share of alternative energy from 5% to 20%.

ISLAMABAD: The government has decided to enhance the share of wind power from 5% to 20% in the national energy mix, a step that will tackle energy shortages caused by widening gap between demand and supply.

The decision was taken in the 26th board meeting of the Alternative Energy Development Board (AEDB) held here on Tuesday, presided over by Federal Water and Power Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar.

AEDB Chief Executive Officer Arif Alauddin, public and private sector members and senior officials of AEDB attended the meeting.

Alauddin said “we have proposed an increase in share of wind power generation in the energy mix under a new code to make it acceptable to the national grid.”

The board approved the grid code for wind power projects, according to which their share was enhanced from 5% to 20% in the energy mix.

According to a statement issued here, Water and Power Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar called for accelerating work on wind power projects with a combined capacity of 1,000 megawatts in order to increase electricity production in the country and “provide cheaper power”.

He stressed that electricity generation from domestic resources was a priority of the government and various steps had been taken to stimulate investment in the sector. In a bid to woo investors, upfront tariff has already been set for wind power projects and tariff for solar electricity projects will be announced soon.

Participants of the meeting said test run of a wind power project of 50MW had started and it would start commercial production next month. Three projects of 150MW are in the process of construction while 12 projects of 1,100MW will achieve financial close this year and next. Participants also approved merger of three wind projects of 30MW.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 27^th, 2013.

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