Isolated villages to be solarised, say CM Murad

F.P. Report

KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that under Chairman Bilawal Bhutto’s Election Manifesto Sindh government would solarise small isolated villages under the Village Electrification program.

He directed Energy Minister Nasir Shah to prepare a detailed proposal so that Chairman Bilawal Bhutto’s plan could be implemented in true letter and spirit.
This emerged in the meeting he chaired to review the Sindh Solar Energy Project here at CM House. The meeting was attended by Minister Energy Syed Nasir Shah, Mayor Karachi Murtaza Wahab, PSCM Agha Wasif, Chairman P&D Najam Shah, Secretary Energy Kazim Jatoi, and Secretary Finance Fayaz Jatoi.

The CM said that isolated villages’ electrification through Solar/wind hybrid could be carried out on PPP Mode. The Private sector/community would be assigned to run the system in a sustainable manner. Murad Shah said that the community would bear the running expenses of the system including salaries of the technical staff and his government would bear periodic expenses of battery replacements.

Minister Energy Nasir Shah briefing the chief minister said that the Sindh Solar Energy Project (SSEP) was an initiative of the Sindh government with the World Bank financing of a $100 million concessional loan approved by ECNEC in November 2018 & revised in July 2023. The project has four components, establishment of 400 MW Solar Parks through competitive bidding; Solarization of 50 MW Public Sector Building, Solar Home Systems to provide electricity to 200,000 households and capacity building by setting up a Solar testing Laboratory and training of Solar Technician.

Utility Scale Solar (Component-I): Three parcels of land were allotted in January 2023, including 250 Acres for 50 MW at Manjhand, Distt Jamshoro, 612 acres for 120 MW in Deh Halkani / Murad Band, Distt West Karachi and 600 acres for 150 MW in Deh Mitha Ghar, Distt Malir. Minister Energy told the CM that the Feasibility studies of the Manjhand and Karachi sites have been completed. The Expression of Interest for the Prequalification process of the Manjhand and KE sites has been completed. For the Manjhand site, four companies prequalified out of five proposals. For KE sites, 16 Companies are prequalified.

The CM was told that the Request for Proposals (RFP) Documents of Manjhand were pending with NEPRA and lingering on due to a Grid approval issue with NTDC & PPIB. PPIB discussed this agenda in its latest Board meeting in January 2024 and it was decided that NTDC would approve the grid study before NEPRA could approve the RFP. At this, the CM directed the Minister of Energy to resolve issues with the NEPRA and expedite the project.

Further, the Karachi site RFPs were approved by NEPRA and the pre-qualification process was initiated on 2nd March 2024. A boundary wall will be constructed shortly.

Distributed Solar (Component-II): The CM was told that there was a target of 50 MW Roof Top Solar on 110 public sector buildings. In the first round 34 Buildings with 21 MW Hospitals. 33 Sites out of 34 have been completed and installation work on the last site Jacababad will be completed by the end of April 2024 in the first phase.
In the second phase, 34 Buildings with 21 MW Hospitals have been taken up. Over 35 percent of the work has been completed and sites will be commissioned by 30th June 2024.

In the third phase, 51 Buildings with 14 MW have been started. In Round IV 50 MW Rooftop solar would be installed at Water and Sanitation Agency Qasimabad Lagoon, Hyderabad.

A 4-MW Floating Solar with battery backup near Ghulam Muhammad Barrage Hyderabad would be installed. The total Load is 6.8 MW including Treatment Plant.
The CM was told that the under solar Home System the original implementation of the component was not successful due to a subsidy of only 40 percent and the high costs of the system which resulted in only 322 systems being sold.

National Socio-Economic Registry (NSER) data of the Benazir Income Support Program (BISP) shall be used to identify the beneficiaries at the district level.
Operations and maintenance of the installed kits will be the responsibility of the Last mile Distributor (LMD) and the end-user beneficiary household.

The CM said that the proposal for BISP beneficiaries may be submitted to him for necessary action.

The chief minister Solar technician training has been conducted in 10 districts and 300 technicians with 50 percent participation of females in rural areas has been carried out. (APP)