PGREF working group endorses outcomes of IPS study on grid-tied PV systems

Energy experts and practitioners partaking in the online meeting of the working group of Pakistan-Germany Renewable Energy Forum (PGREF) have termed the issues highlighted in the ongoing IPS’ study over quality and procedural gaps in solar PV deployment in Pakistan as a matter of grave concern, as they were adversely affecting the country’s transitional growth towards renewable energy.

It may be noted that the said study is being carried out as part of Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (REEE) agreement held between Pakistan’s Ministry of Energy (Power) and the German Ministry of Economic Cooperation. Under this REEE program, IPS is working with the joint persuasion of AEDB (Alternative Energy Development Board) and GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit) to identify gaps and suggest ways to improve the quality and practices of grid-tied PV system installations in the country.

The PGREF’s working group meeting held to discuss the study on November 11, 2021 was addressed by Shahjahan Mirza, chief executive officer, AEDB, Dr Irfan Yousaf, consultant renewable energy at NEPRA, Ali Zain Banatwala, team leader REEE at GIZ and a prominent Smart Grid expert, and the heads of many distributions/transmission companies and relevant business enterprises in Pakistan. The session was also partaken by professionals and experts from German Ministries of Energy and Economic Cooperation, whereas the outcomes of the study along with its inspection results were presented by Hamza Naeem, researcher from IPS’ Energy, Water and Climate Change desk.

CEO AEDB Shahjahan Mirza endorsed the significance of the study’s findings, stressing on the need to address them sooner rather than later. He mentioned that the suggested model of 3rd party validation and inspection process has already been on the focus agenda of AEDB in order to snub malpractices.

Yousaf too validated the outcomes of the study while stating that the mentioned malpractices were rusting the growth of PV systems deployment and can also lead to accidents, which will go on to dent the confidence of the customer on installation of roof-top PV systems even further.

It is worthy of a mention that IPS is already working with AEDB and GIZ for the development of third-party validation and inspection process.