Pakistan approves 280 MW of solar in 2021-22

In its newly released 2021-22 annual report, Nepra revealed that a total of 12 power generation licenses were approved with a total capacity of 211.42 MW, of which nine were awarded for solar projects totaling 44.74 MW.

The remaining 3 were awarded natural gas, hydro and coal power projects. The hydropower project has the largest capacity at 152.12 MW; while the largest photovoltaic project is 20 MW. According to the report, the installed capacity of Pakistan’s power sector has grown to over 40,000 MW.

The regulator also issued 7,032 net metering licenses, almost all of them solar projects, totaling 243.43 MW of installed capacity. This comes after the country's government issued a notice that net-metering distributed generation facilities for solar and wind up to 25 kW will no longer require a power generation license. Pakistan has approved a total of 288 MW of new solar capacity in 2021-2022.

Nepra will also increase the price at which net metered households inject excess electricity into the grid from PKR 19.32 ($0.089)/kWh to PKR 9/kWh.

In May, government authorities introduced a new model for the Pakistan electricity wholesale market, the Competitive Trade Bilateral Contract Market (CTBCM) model. According to the website of the State Central Power Procurement Authority (CPPA), the purpose of the model is to "introduce competition in the electricity market and create an enabling environment for multi-party sellers and buyers to trade electricity".

It said: “The market structure currently followed in Pakistan is a single buyer model, where the CPPA (as a single buyer) buys electricity on behalf of...distribution companies. In CTBCM there will be multiple buyers and multiple sellers and hourly electricity prices will be determined by supply and demand Relationship decides."

Nepra has approved four power purchase agreements in 2021-22, one of which was for a solar company. The report also noted that regulators approved licensing regulations for microgrids "with a vision to bring electricity to remote areas of the country".

来源：www.pv-magazine.com