What the government takes with one hand, it gives with the other. Its relation to solar power is an example. While it lowered the buyback tariff drastically, from Rs 21 per unit to Rs 10, it continued to pour money into a scheme for converting Balochistan’s tubewells to solar power. Ts 14 billion is the price tag placed on this, as opposed to the conversion to solar power by residential consumers all over the country, which has been entirely financed by the homeowner. The main reason for the conversion is that it is cheap. Balochistan’s tubwells are being powered free. WAPDA power, based on thermal generation by the IPPs, saw tariffs going ever higher, and also the country’s fuel imports reaching unsustainable levels. Solar power solves this problem: not only are there no tariff costs, but fuel import bills will be lowered.
However, this argument also applies to domestic consumers, so why the difference in attitude. Does it lie in the willingness to pay? Balochitan landowners simply do not pay their bills, and also refuse to be disconnected, applying all sorts of pressure to avoid this. As a result, receivables have reached Rs 564 billion. Clearly, the government is cutting its losses and running, with 4538 connections removed so far. On the other hand, domestic consumers opting for solarization are good customers, paying their bills on time. Their not paying all they would if they had not solarized, makes it hard to pay the capacity charges the government has promised the IPPs. So far, the solarizing consumers have not gone off the grid, which would be a nightmare for WAPDA. This is because they cannot store the electricity they now sell to WAPDA, and draw from the grid when there is not enough power being generated. There has been an earlier decision that solarized consumers must pay taxes according to the amount they use, not that which they are billed for. The Balochistan tubewells, it might be noted, are disconnected entirely, and part of the transition costs are for removal of meters, poles, and transformers.
The government, it seems, is aware that the change is driven by both economics and technological change. However, it is also held back by supporters of oil generation. It does not seem to realize tht it cannot stop the spreading of solar power to what WAPDA thinks of as cash cows, and it must dread the day when consumers find advances in storage technology allows them to go off the grid.
