There is a proposal to cut the buyback rate for net metering from Rs 21 per unit to Rs 11 per unit on the plea that the rich have benefited so far. What happens is that when solar power is installed at a premises, WAPDA takes up all its production at Rs 21, then charges the electricity consumed at normal rates. What usually ensues is that the consumer has a much lower bill than if he had remained dependent on WAPDA. WAPDA is accusing the rich of benefiting, because conversion involves a significant investment. Another plea taken is that the consumer should pay for the distribution costs, which can only be done by a lower buyback rate. Actually, WAPDA is facing the problem of solar power reducing its cashflow. It needs the cash to pay the IPPs, which have been promised capacity payments, whereby they have been guaranteed payment even if they do not produce a single watt of electricity.
There seem to be people in the Power Division who are opposed to the transformative revolution that solar power represents, who would like it to remain used only by home consumers. It is not a matter of renewables. Wind power and hydel, for example, need distribution like thermal, but solar can be generated anywhere. It means that the country’s oil import bill can be controlled. Pakistan is ideally placed for solar generation, and if the problem of storage is solved, the way generation has been, transport can move onto it, and oil will return to being an unsightly sludge rather than being the black gold it has been for the last century and a half.
It may well be another WAPDA mistake that the country pays for. The need to discourage solar power is because of the IPP agreements, which were made when the government was desperate to get IPPs to come in, so that it made agreements which make the country scream. One of the factors behind the sudden concern about WAPDA’s finances is IMF pressure. It would be a true pity if the IMF was to make Pakistan do things opposed to its own policy of greening the economy.
