ISLAMABAD, April 20: Federal Minister for Water and Power Liaquat Ali Jatoi has said that the government would take initiatives to expedite development of alternate sources of energy to meet the country’s growing demand for power and produce cheaper energy.

While, presiding over the meeting of the Alternative Energy Development Board (AEDB), he said the government was committed to resolving all the issues faced by investors.

Talking about the government’s policy for utilisation of renewable resources, he assured the Independent Power Producers (IPPs) of full support to facilitate them for setting up wind generating power plants.

All the energy generated from wind projects would be purchased and dispatched into the system. Wind risk (risk of variability of wind speed) would be borne by the power purchaser as per policy, he added.

Mr Jatoi directed all stakeholders to come forward with concerted and coordinated efforts to yield positive results and to implement the directives of President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz to provide cheap electricity to consumers on top priority basis particularly in the remote areas.

He stressed the need to prioritise electrification of remote villages through wind and solar generating projects to provide cheaper energy to the people in these areas.

Air Marshal Shahid Hamid, chairman AEDB, informed the meeting that 34 Letters of Intent (LOIs) had been issued to the investors involving an investment of $2.2 billion in wind energy field.

He said that 500 to 600 Mega Watt power would be installed in the year 2007. AEDB has prepared a time line for wind power projects in consultation with private investors and hoped that some wind farm projects would commence this year.

AEDB has also prepared a comprehensive time bound plan to electrify 7,874 remote villages including 6,968 in Balochistan and 906 in Sindh, located outside the 20km radius of the National Grid System through renewable energy resources, he added.

Chairman NEPRA also assured that a flexible tariff opportunity would be offered to investors and tariff determinations would be processed and approved expeditiously.