Minister for Energy (Power Division) Sardar Awais Ahmed Khan Leghari on Wednesday categorically said that the government has not imposed any ban on setting up power generating projects of renewable energy in the country.

Responding to a supplementary question during Question Hour in Senate, the minister said the government has now decided for carrying out competitive bidding for awarding of tariff to new wind power projects. The competitive bidding mechanism was more transparent than earlier up-front tariff system, he said.

He said, “Now we are going for surplus energy and competitive bidding mechanism is being followed in whole global economy”.

Earlier, State Minister for Energy (Power Division) Abid Sher Ali apprised the House that the PML-N government was developing green energy power projects in the country. Mapping through wind mass was being carried out to determine areas for wind power generation, he added.

He said there were around 28 projects of wind power generation. Out of total 15 wind power projects had already been commissioned while 13 projects would be completed during the current year, he said.

The minister said the government planned to develop new wind power projects of approx. 1200 MW cumulative capacity through competitive bidding, working for which has already been initiated.

To a supplementary question, Abid Sher said the power regulator determined 6.7 cent power tariff for wind power projects.

To another question, the Minister said all power distribution companies (DISCOs) were directed to complete up-gradation of transmission lines by April. The Chakdara Grid Station would also be completed by March which would help end low voltage and outage in Swat and Dir etc, he said.

Regarding losses of DISCOs, Abid Sher said that around five distribution companies were working in Punajb and their transmission and distribution losses stood at around 12.7 per cent while losses in Peshawar Electric Supply Company (PESCO) was recorded as 30 per cent followed by Hyderabad and Sukkur Electric Power Supply Companies (HESCO and SEPCO) with 34 per cent losses each.

He said mobile meter reading mechanism has been devised to end wrong billing and all lengthy feeders had been bifurcated to control distribution losses.