The All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) Punjab Chairman Adil
Bashir has said that the textile industry is ready for adopting
renewable (solar hybrid) energy solutions to deal with sustainability
and competitiveness issues.
He was speaking at an awareness
session organised for member mills at the APTMA Punjab office in
association with Solar Quality Foundation (SQF). Senior Vice Chairman
APTMA Punjab Abdul Rahim Nasir, Vice Chairman APTMA Punjab Aamir Sheikh,
Treasurer-elect APTMA Punjab Kamran Arshad, and a large number of
representatives of mills were also present on this occasion.
While
pointing out the energy affordability issue of Punjab-based industry,
he emphasized the importance of energy in the whole energy mix of
industry and stated that its share has become more than 35-40 percent in
total conversion cost in the basic textiles, ie spinning and weaving.
He
appreciated energy package announced by the government for exporting
industry ie gas at USD 6.5/mmbtu and electricity at US Cents 7.5/kWh.
The total electricity load of APTMA members in Punjab is around 1400 MW,
he added.
According to him, the regional competitors are rapidly
adopting other sustainable options like solar and wind. Therefore, it
is right time for the industry in Pakistan to invest in other
sustainable energy solutions like solar to remain competitive in
domestic and international markets.
He said a few industries have
already deployed solar based captive power plants and many others are
interested in these solutions if right guidance is provided to them.
Speaking
on the occasion, Chairman SQF Ishaq Bhatt highlighted significance of
solar and its viability in current scenario. He also introduced Solar
Quality Passport, which is a safety certification, a quality assurance
standard and educative program for PV installers.
The solution
providers informed the participants that the State Bank of Pakistan has
recently announced revised refinance scheme for renewable energy
providing financing (up to 100%) at subsidized rate of 6 percent
(maximum) for end consumers for the tenure of 10-12 years. However,
there are some issues in the new policy which need to be addressed so
that industry could avail benefits of this scheme, they added.
They
said there are some issues in the new policy which needed to be
addressed to let the industry avail its benefits. Under this scheme,
industry fall in category 01 and SBP is requested to include wheeling
scheme in this category. Furthermore, category 03 limits the ability of
distributed solar developers to develop only 1 MW project with financing
up to Rs 1 billion. It should enhance the project limit up to 5 MW with
increase in financing limit up to Rs 3 billion, they stressed.
Source: Business Recorder, Pakistan Wednesday, 04 September 2019