ISLAMABAD: Caretaker Minister for Energy Muhammad Ali at a meeting with the ambassador of Denmark Jacob Linulf said clean energy is the top priority of the government of Pakistan in the wake of rising climate change issues.
At the meeting held at the Power Division, the two sides discussed the update on Danish Energy Transmission Initiative (DETI) project.
The minister said the world was witnessing a much needed transition towards clean energy in wake of climate change. Pakistan, being more vulnerable to impacts of the global climate change, has also to adapt to and mitigate the climate change.
He said that the government had recently approved the National Electricity Plan 2023 which provides guidelines, implementation mechanisms and tools for the realization of the National Electricity Policy goals for the power sector.
The NE Plan 2023 targets to have a share of 40% from renewables (including hydropower) by 2025 and 60% by 2030.
He said that Denmark’s support based on their expertise and experience would certainly be beneficial for Pakistan in making the transition towards cleaner and greener energy mix and in fulfilling Pakistan’s commitments towards Climate Change targets and Sustainable Development Goals.
The ambassador expressed his aim to take the cooperation between the two countries to the next level. The Minister discussed the possible plan to expand the sustainable energy particularly focusing on wind and solar energy.
Power Sector plays an important role in Climate Change mitigation and accordingly the government is giving top priority to just energy transition in Pakistan.
He said that the true success of the transition is to have the real impact in the area of sustainable energy. The aim is to gradually decrease the tariff and move towards utilisation of indigenous resources.
The minister stressed on the importance of mapping out a plan in collaboration with Denmark as it has already completed its energy transition.
Further discussing the updates of the DETI project the government-to-government contact and the stakeholders were discussed. There are two thematic areas of the project, one being energy planning and modelling, and the other being the integration of renewable energy.
The agenda for the Conference of Parties (COP-28) meeting was also discussed. There will be two scenarios discussed in COP-28 with respect to DETI.
The one scenario will be green scenario where the progress of wind and solar energy will be discussed and the other scenario will be the economic aspect. The grid constraints were also taken into consideration.
The minister said that the agenda will be designed to attract maximum green investment in Pakistan.
For the future collaboration it was decided that the analysis of the existing transmission and distribution network in order to identify the bottlenecks and recommend way forward for induction of more renewable energy capacity especially with regards to the Interconnection Ready Zones (IRZs) identified in the Locational Study carried out by the World Bank will be done.
DETI will provide advice and recommended measures to decrease the impact of seasonal demand variations (between summer and winter) in order to improve energy supplies while maintaining system stability, especially considering the impact of new VRE additions as per IGCEP 2022-31.
The minister said that power division aims for a progressive and extensive cooperation with Denmark to achieve its green energy milestones. The ambassador appreciated the efforts of Pakistan for the transition of energy.
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