Developing Electricity Market for Future

Date : July 07, 2020 at 03:00 PM

Moderator: Dr. Nadeem ul Haq (Vice Chancellor PIDE)

Speaker : Shahid Sattar (Former Member Energy, Planning Commission), Amer Zafar Durrani (President Reenergia), Ayesha Ali (Asst. Professor. LUMS)

Discussant : Ermeena Malik (Renewable Energy Consultant, World Bank), Tahir Basharat Cheema (Former MD, PEPCO), Rashid Aziz (Former Senior Energy Specialist. World Bank), Vaqar Zakaria (Partner and Director. Hagler Barley. Pakistan), Waqas Bin Najib (Member Energy, Planning Commision), Syed Akhtar Ali (Former Member Energy. Planning Commision)

The electricity market is complex; it requires legal, financial and human capacity at every level. It requires healthy participants. We have moved from vertically integrated to the single-buyer model, but so far, failed in developing a wholesale market. There are private participants in the generation, but no competition due to guaranteed long-term contracts. Political and bureaucratic capture is so strong that it resists change. This capture discourages healthy participants to take part in the market and compete. Power sector (at present) do not satisfy the pre-requisites of a wholesale market.