Power consumers wronged

2026-02-12 - 01:36

THE elected representatives on both sides of the isle in the Upper House of Parliament, on Tuesday, showed sensitivity towards the plight of the power consumers after the Government imposed a highly unjust and unfair rooftop solar and net metering regime but miserably failed to safeguard the rights of the people by not supporting the resolution against the new anti-consumer policy. The mover of the resolution, Senator Zarqa Suharwardi, called for a transparent policy on solar panels, saying IPPs were “looting this country” and should be shut down, and urged the government to adopt policies that provide relief to the public. Senator Ali Zafar also represented feelings of the masses by accusing the authorities of protecting powerful interests at the expense of ordinary citizens. The Government reversed the net metering policy for rooftops and went for net billing citing a significant fall in the use of grid electricity resulting in more financial burden on non-solar users but in practice the new policy is going to play havoc with the power sector as technology cannot be chained. Minister for Power Sardar Awais Leghari defended the changes made in the system by the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) at the behest of the Government, claiming that the new regulations were aimed at protecting poorer consumers but in practice the measure would add further burden on the grid users as consumers are being pushed towards backup systems, which are efficient enough to minimize dependence on the costly grid energy. What a tragedy that under the new rules, utilities will be required to purchase excess electricity from prosumers, households, businesses and industries generating up to one megawatt at the national average energy purchase price (about Rs. 11 a unit), while selling electricity back to them at the applicable consumer tariff (approximately Rs. 50 a unit), effectively ending one-to-one net metering. Addition of cheaper electricity to the grid should result in lowering of tariff for the consumers but no such pledge has been made, which means the savings will be used to perpetuate inefficiency and corruption in the system. It is a matter of concern that just within a week, the Government initiated two moves to the detriment of the general consumer – replacement of net metering with net billing and imposition of fixed charges to the tune of Rs.132 billion on households to fund subsidies for the industry. A shocking aspect of the entire episode is that NEPRA has stepped in to benefit from the new regime as it will collect a concurrence fee from solar consumers @ Rs.1,000 per kilowatt, which is nothing but sheer extortion. Why on earth concurrence is required from NEPRA for a routine contract between a distribution company and a consumer, a requirement that also goes against the spirit of simplification of procedures for installation of meters? All this makes the claim of the Minister hollow that the Government plans to expand clean energy in the power mix and that by 2034, 90% of electricity will come from clean sources. In fact, addition of clean energy, which is also much cheaper, offers the long-term solution to the challenges faced by the energy sector but retrogressive measures and policies run contrary to this noble objective. Senator Sherry Rehman has aptly pointed out that the new rules “will not only slow down the country’s energy transition and contradict Pakistan’s climate commitments, they will, quite literally, punish citizens for producing clean, affordable energy”. The Government is, in fact, axing production of cheaper electricity to provide unfair benefit to influential IPPs. The new rules need to be thoroughly debated in the parliament and revised in the light of input from the elected representatives.