THE country is being flooded with second-class solar photovoltaic equipment with no quality standards or certification in place for their import.

A ‘National Electricity Safety Code’ to verify the import process of such equipment has been drafted by the Alternative Energy Development Board (AEDB), but the ministry of water and power wants it to be revised to ensure simplification of the testing procedures.

According to an AEDB official, the ministry wants a mechanism so that no consignment is blocked at the port for want of equipment-testing. The draft code is unlikely to be finalised in the near future, and importers in the meantime will take advantage of the situation and import lower-quality photovoltaic (PV) equipment from China.

Most of the modules are used for water pumps and solar home systems. Pakistan is to have its first large-scale, on-grid PV project as the government plans to install 1GW of PV in the ‘Quaid-e-Azam Solar Park’ near Bahawalpur.

So far, the requirements that a PV plant has to fulfill are defined in a grid code released by the National Electrical Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra). The grid code sets out the guidelines, rules and procedures to be adopted by all grid users.

The sub-codes of the grid code relate to technical and commercial relationships between the National Transmission and Dispatch Company (NTDC) and its users. Nepra has also notified the performance standards. In both documents, there are no special regulations for PV equipment, but some of the standards are relevant for the inverter characteristic.

The German government body Giz, which worked on the renewable energy and energy efficiency project, has submitted a report to the AEDB on the quality standards for import of solar PV equipment.

Between 2010 and 2014, the total installed costs of utility-scale solar photovoltaic systems fell by as much as 65pc

GIZ has suggested that since the PV sector is a new and growing market in Pakistan, and since test facilities do not exist, it is not advisable to choose a ‘casual’ certification process. It would be more suitable to choose a product certification process that includes an independent accredited laboratory. The most important quality characteristics for modules and inverters should be tested pre-shipment.

The compliance of PV equipment with the safety and quality codes and norms should be certified and labelled on the product for import. Pakistan does not have a universal system for labelling or marking on products, and as such there is no label that can be used for compliance certificates.

Based on quality standards defined in the EU, the US and India, suitable standards can be defined here. Pakistan has a quality standard system based on the International Organisation for Standardisation and International Electro-technical Commission norms; as such, it is advisable to base the quality and import standards for PV equipment on IEC and EN norms as well.

Giz suggests that all PV equipment should have a product warranty of at least 10 years and a performance guarantee of 90pc at the end of 10 years and 80pc at the end of 25 years.

For a new PV market, it is advisable to release a recycle guideline for PV modules, junction boxes and inverters. Apparently there are no special rules for electrical waste (e-waste) recycling.

Quoting figures, Giz estimated that since 2011, the import of PV equipment and modules/solar cells has increased constantly. Especially in 2013, a huge amount of modules with a cumulative assessed value of over $108m were imported. However, charge and current controllers have so far not been imported.

The cost of generating power from renewable energy sources has reached parity or dropped below the cost of fossil fuels for many technologies in many parts of the world, the International Renewable Energy Agency revealed in a 2014 report.

The landmark report, ‘Renewable Power Generation Costs in 2014,’ concludes that biomass, hydropower, geothermal and onshore wind are all competitive with or cheaper than coal, oil and gas-fired power, even without financial support and despite falling oil prices. Solar photovoltaic is leading the cost decline, with a solar PV module’s cost falling 75pc since the end of 2009 and the cost of electricity from utility-scale solar PV falling 50pc since 2010.

Between 2010 and 2014, the total installed costs of utility-scale solar PV systems fell by as much as 65pc. The most competitive utility-scale solar PV projects are delivering electricity at $0.08/kWh without financial support, and lower prices are possible with low financing costs. Their cost range in China, North America and South America has fallen within the range of fossil fuel-fired electricity.

Published in Dawn, Economic & Business, January 26th , 2015

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