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ISLAMABAD, Feb 14 (APP): Director General Hydropower of Private Power & Infrastructure Board (PPIB), Dr Engineer Munawar Iqbal has said that there is a need to harness the country’s hydropower potential to add clean and green electricity to the national grid system for sustainable economic development.
“Pakistan has been blessed with huge resources for generating hydel and renewable energy (RE). The private sector should focus on investment in this sector in collaboration with the government,” he added.
The PPIB was paying special attention to power generation from local resources, especially hydel, wind and solar energy, he said during a meeting with Acting President of ICCI Engineer Azhar Islamat at the Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry, a news release stated on Wednesday.
He said that the Pakistani investors should come forward and take advantage of the immense opportunities for investment in clean and green energy.
There were vast opportunities in the energy sector and investors should benefit from them, he added.
He said that his organization had so far successfully added over 18,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity to the national grid through Independent Power Producers (IPPs), which was about 50% of the total installed capacity.
He said that the PPIB was providing a one-window facility to investors and lenders in that regard.
He further said that at present the share of hydel in the energy mix was 25%, followed by solar energy with 6% and thermal with 69%. He further said that a target of 62% energy had been set through RE and hydel resources.
“We intend to increase the reliance on local resources, the target is to add more green energy to the system in the next 10 years.”
Acting ICCI President Engineer Azhar Islam said that the availability of cheap energy played a key role in promoting business and economic activities, but electricity generated from oil was very expensive for the business community.
He said that electricity generated from renewable sources was also clean and environmentally friendly. He urged the government to take all possible measures to increase the production of electricity from renewable sources including hydropower to generate cheap electricity, reduce the import bill, improve the competitiveness of the industry and increase exports, which will improve the economy rapidly.
