13 energy projects cleared amid poor bidding response
The federal government has cleared for implementation 13 old renewable energy (RE) projects of about 700 megawatts — commonly called Category-III projects — and has referred the matter to the Council of Common Interests (CCI) for formal approval as bidding for a lot of 600MW solar project at Muzaffargarh received poor investor response. Informed sources said a special cabinet committee led by Defence Minister Khawaja Asif recommended that the sponsors of 13 proposed RE plants in solar and wind technologies in Cat-III whose tariffs had been approved by the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) be given the go-ahead to start developing their projects. The committee also comprised Power Minister Khurram Dastgir Khan, Commerce Minister Syed Naveed Qamar and Human Rights Minister Riaz Hussain Pirzada. Based on these recommendations, these sources said, a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Energy (CCOE) led by PM Shehbaz Sharif last week also supported the move and decided to refer the matter to the CCI, given the inter-provincial nature of the scheme. Mr Dastgir, who as power minister had been supportive of Category-III projects, confirmed to Dawn that the projects had been cleared. He had requested the prime minister last year as well to push the projects which could immediately go into construction phase. “An inter-ministerial committee formed by PM Shehbaz Sharif on stalled renewable energy projects has submitted its report to the prime minister, with the recommendation that the report be put before the Council of Common Interests,” he said.