Dawn News/10-02-2020

ISLAMABAD: The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) has advised the wind power producers (WPPs)to explore the possibility of utilizing their sites and available land to set up solar-wind hybrid power projects with an eye on augmented capacity and to make their product economical. This has been proposed by the regulator to the existing WPPs facing their load curtailments by the power operators —National Transmission & Dispatch Company (NDTC) and National Power Control Centre (NPCC) —because of their relatively higher tariff and substantial surplus capacity available in the base load and conventional power supplies —oil, gas and coal, etc. Sources said Nepra had recently arranged a consultative session with all the stakeholders, including WPPs, NTDC and NPCC, for a way out of the current imbroglio as many of these projects were contracted under a higher tariff regime of the 2006 policy before the alternative energy technologies started to come down in the market. The regulator has now suggested that hybrid retrofit of existing WPPs was feasible since the land for WPPs was allocated in blocks and large unutilised acreage was still available for solar photovoltaic installations. Also, the existing grid and evacuation infrastructure could also be utilised for this hybrid arrangement.