WITH the United States declining to help meet Pakistan’s future requirement of 8,800 MW of power by extending nuclear cooperation, the government is finalizing a plan to develop renewable energy resources for electrifying 7,874 villages in Sindh and Balochistan by December 2007.

One of the major objectives of the plan is to avoid growing dependency over the conventional resources especially oil, which are not environment-friendly. Various international organizations and institutes including financial agencies have been encouraging renewable energy technologies for power generation.

The plan, which has been made a part of the “electrification of the entire country in three years” (December 2007), seeks to provide the inhabitants of far flung areas of the two provinces an access not only to electricity but also clean potable water.

The federal government will initially provide Rs343 million to help electrify 7,874 villages. There is no infrastructure available in the remote areas of Sindh and Balochistan to cater for the energy requirements of the dwellers.

The programme aims at development of technological base for manufacturing of equipment to produce electricity indigenously for which the transfer of technology will be sought from the foreign countries. President George W. Bush government is understood to have assured President General Pervez Musharraf that transfer of technology for promoting renewable energy resources will be ensured for Pakistan, both by the Unites States and the western countries.

The demand is overwhelming. There is no developed system to supply energy to the remote areas. Besides, no assessment of demand has been carried out for these areas, which will be done under the programme.

The federal government has directed the Alternate Energy Development Board (AEDB) to develop comprehensive proposals for electrification of villages located outside 20 km radius of Wapda gird stations. It will help achieve the assigned electricity targets.

The AEDB would implement its plan in a phased manner. Initially, 100 villages will be taken up in central Balochistan and along the Iranian border for providing electricity through renewable energy resources. The project would better equip AEDB to undertake its assignment on a much large scale later as it would provide opportunity for technical evaluation as well as the necessary experience for effective management, implementation and monitoring of such projects in future on a large scale.

The villages in locality would be electrified through solar and wind energy technologies for which the government would be importing necessary equipment. There are two options for solar to complete lighting system with 40 and 80 Watt Mono/Poly Silicon Solar Panel. The solar panel directly converts the sunlight into DC electricity as the free electrons get liberated as they absorb energy in the form of heat energy from the sun.

The electricity so generated is stored in batteries connected with the panel though a charge controller connected with the system to regulate the charging and to check over charging and discharging of the battery. The equipments to be imported are; Solar PV Panels, Charge Controllers, Lights, LED Lights, Batteries and Submersible Pumps.

According to the details, 50 per cent villages will be electrified through solar energy while another 50 per cent will be offered the facility of electricity through wind energy by installing micro wind turbines.

A total of 408.7 kw of electricity is expected to be generated through these sources. Each household will be provided with solar lanterns of five Watt capacity.

The electrification of villages through renewable energy technologies will result in saving almost 50 percent of the cost that may have spent if these villages would be electrified through conventional resources and through the extension of the national grid.

According to the officials concerned, following objectives will be obtained in addition to the electrification of remote villages: improvement in the living standards of the people, increase in working hours due to access to light in the night hours. This will also result in increase in the productivity of the villages and at the end will increase their income, facilitation to the studying children, increase in general public awareness due to orientation to the electronic media.

Also, the use of fossil fuel like kerosene oil will be replaced by renewable energy technologies for lighting. This will reduce the expenses of the villagers and will result in savings. It has been evaluated that the villagers have been spending Rs200-400 for lighting. The variation in the expenses depends upon the locality.

The project is designed in such a way that the users will be required to share some percentage of the total cost to be incurred on one house during the installation phase.

The recurring expenditure will be met through the funds raised from the end users. The beneficiaries will be required to give Rs 1,000 upfront as connection charges before installation/ activation. They will be required to give flat tariff of Rs150 per month as service charges for the first five years. Subsequently, the rate will increase at a rate of Rs50 at interval of five years.

To ensure the sustainability of the programme, financial institutions like Khushali Bank will be involved to provide macro credit schemes to villagers. This would enable them to own the electrification equipment, installed at their houses and thus develop a sense of ownership among them.

The project will be monitored by the Board and will be executed through private parties.