Energy sector lacking vision: Experts
The 15th ‘Oil and Gas Energy conference’ was held in Karachi in the last weeks of June 2019 along with the 17th International Oil and Gas Exhibition (POGEE). The conference was star studded as many notable names participated as speakers including Director General, Pakistan Council of Renewable Energy Technologies, Dr Baqar Raza, Director, Alternative Energy Development Board (AEDB) Sheeraz Anwar Khan, CEO, Lakhra Coal Mining Company (LCMC) Toufeeq Ahmed, Director Projects, Private Power & Infrastructure Board (PPIB) Engr Ali Nawaz, Assistant Director, Directorate of Alternative Energy, Sindh Energy Department, Asif Jehanzeb and many others.
There was a consensus among the experts that Pakistan’s Energy sector has immensely suffered due to lack of vision and strategy whereas focus has always remained on reckless capacity addition at exuberant cost. Many experts complained that energy policy makers had largely ignored other important factors such as improvement in generation mix, augmentation of indigenous supplies, up-scaling of transmission and distribution system and institutional development which has ultimately led to a very fragile system.
AEDB director Sheeraz Anwar Khan suggested that readjustment of the generation mix should be at the heart of any remedial plan when going to address energy crisis in the country. “Based on existing energy mix, Pakistan’s dependence on the fossil fuel is 63 percent out of which 55 percent is on imported fuel which is a serious threat to our energy security,”
