Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah,presiding over a meeting, has decided to implement the PPP ChairmanBilawal Bhutto’s program to provide free-of-cost electricity toconsumers living off-grid and to those using 50 to 100 MW electricity byimplementing the solar energy solution.This decision was taken in a meeting held at the CM House in whichdifferent proposals were discussed.
Minister P&D and Energy NasirShah,CM Advisor for Cooperative Societies AhsanMazari, Chief Secretary AsifHyder Shah, PSCM Agha Wasif, Secretary Energy Musadiq Khan, and othersattended the meeting.On-Grid: Minister Energy Nasir Shah, briefing the CM, said that on hisdirectives, his department has worked out that around 80,000 householdswere using 50 MW of electricity per month. They include 441,483 in KEjurisdiction, 229,338 in HESCO, and 125,500 in SEPCO. Similarly, thenumber of households using 100 MW per month comes to 1.9 million, with1,054,000 in Karachi (KE), 566,427 in the Hyderabad region (HESCO), and356,073 in the Sukkur region (SEPCO).Off-Grid: The CM was told that there were 2.6 million off-gridhouseholds of them 500,000 may be provided Solar Home Systems (SHS) inthe first phase.
The CM said that a 100-watt SHC was enough for 3 LEDbulbs, a 35W DC fan and a 6-hour battery backup with Mobile chargingports. Nasir Shah told the CM that the cost of an SHS comes to aroundRs50,000 each and the total cost for 2.6 million SHS would be around 25billion.Microgrids: The CM said that six microgrids, each one of 75kW, could beestablished in all six divisions as a pilot project to cover a100-household cluster. These grids could provide electricity tohouseholds consuming 100 kWh. Minister Energy said that its feasibilitycould be prepared if the proposal is approved.Three Solar Parks: The CM proposed that three Solar Parks, each one of305 MW may be established to provide electricity to KE, HESCO and SEPCOto provide onward to the on and off-grid household.The CM directed Minister Energy to prepare proposals for Solar Parks andSolar Home Systems so that one of both proposals could be discussed andapproved. Meanwhile, the CM directed the chief secretary to collect datafor SHS consumers from the data. “This will help to make decision.”
