In the past 10 years, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP)-led Sindh government could only spend 2.87 per cent of the total development budget of its energy department.
From the financial year 2015-16 till 2023-24, the Sindh government allocated a total of Rs62.854 billion for various projects of the energy department, including the projects that were classified under Foreign Project Assistance (FPA) and were supposed to be completed with the help of donor agencies’ assistance, but, according to the Sindh government’s budget documents, only Rs1.8 billion of that Rs62.854 billion was actually spent.
To put this in perspective, the PPP-led Sindh government spent less on its entire energy department during the last 10 fiscal years than what it spent on a single flyover and underpass project in Karachi’s Gulistan-e-Jauhar that cost Rs2.1 billion.
Most of the energy department’s development schemes from the financial year 2015-16 onwards are related to renewable energy projects or village electrification schemes. In spite of this, according to the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority’s (Nepra) State of Industry Report 2023, only 12.5 per cent of the total 16,940-megawatt (MW) power generation capacity of Sindh comes from the renewable energy projects.
The fuel-based power capacity in Sindh is 14,821MW, while the capacity from renewable energy sources is 2,119MW, which includes 24MW from biogas, 250MW from solar energy, and 1,845MW from wind.
However, a Nepra official told The Citizenry that Sindh currently has the country’s highest renewable power capacity. According to the federal government’s Central Power Purchasing Agency’s 2023 annual report, the country’s total gross power capacity is 46,754 MW, of which 2,814 MW is gross renewable power capacity. Wind contributes 1,842 MW, solar 680 MW, and biogas 291.8 MW to it.
Some calculations by The Citizenry show that Sindh’s renewable power capacity is 75.30 per cent of the country’s total renewable power capacity. There could be a minor difference in this percentage, as it was calculated using figures from two different government reports.
Meanwhile, as part of its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), due to its status as a signatory to the Paris Agreement of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Pakistan has set a target of a 50 per cent reduction in its projected emissions by 2030. To reach this target, Pakistan aims to have 60 per cent of its power production through renewable energy sources and 30 per cent of its total vehicles running on electricity by 2030 with a complete ban on imported coal.
For achieve these goals, the least that the provinces could do is to allocate and spend the necessary funds on renewable energy projects.
Sindh Energy Department
The Sindh Energy Department oversees everything related to producing and delivering electricity within the province. This includes hydropower and thermal power, which means sources like coal, gas, or oil.
The department also sets supply rates for consumers in bulk and can establish tariffs within the province, except where the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) has already done so. The energy department is also responsible for planning, policymaking, processing power projects, and enactment of legislation regarding thermal and hydropower generation and distribution.
The Directorate of Alternate Energy also works under the department, which is responsible for harnessing alternative/renewable energy resources, addressing relevant issues/matters at the provincial level, and facilitating local and foreign investors and donors in promoting and implementing alternative energy/renewable energy projects.
Of the 23 development schemes of the energy department in the budget of the ongoing financial year 2024-25, 22 are related to renewable energy. This suggests that the PPP-led provincial government is committed to energy transition in principle. However, when it comes to the actual expenditure and implementation of these schemes, the commitment appears somewhat lukewarm.
In their 2018 election manifesto, the PPP promised to focus specifically on harnessing the potential of all sources of renewable energy. “We will initiate a new policy for renewables that will provide adequate incentives to the private sector to invest in renewable energy. By 2023, we pledge to increase the share of renewables in Pakistan’s energy mix to 5 percent.”
To this end, the PPP seems to have taken measures, as till June 2023, renewable power capacity constituted almost 6 per cent of the country’s total gross power capacity, of which Sindh has the largest share.
Allocation vs Expenditure
In 2015-16, a total of Rs6.7 billion development funds were allocated for the energy projects. In 2016-17, the allocation decreased to Rs6.3 billion.
The following year, that allocation further decreased to Rs3 billion. The trend of significant reduction in energy department’s allocation continued in the 2018-19 budget, in which only Rs374 million was earmarked.
From 2019-20 onwards, the allocation kept increasing with Rs2.3 billion in 2019-20, Rs4.3 billion in 2020-21, Rs7 billion in 2021-22, Rs7.1 billion in 2022-23 and Rs10.628 billion in 2023-24. In the recent 2024-25 budget, the Sindh government allocated Rs15 billion for the energy department’s projects.
Against these allocations, the first expenditure of Rs1.2 billion was made in the financial year 2015-16. Upon analysing the budget documents, The Citizenry learned that the expenditures were made in two energy projects — the Village Electrification Programme in Sindh (Phase-VII), in which Rs1 billion were spent by June 2016, and the Electrification of Goths (Villages) in Karachi (Phase-VI), in which Rs200 million was spent by June 2016. Both the schemes excluded the areas where the K-Electric was licensed to operate.
In the following fiscal year 2016-17, the total expenditure was a mere Rs4.05 million for a scheme titled ‘Electrification of Primary Health Facilities Through Solar PV Technology’ in Tharparkar, Sanghar, Shaheed Benazirabad, Umerkot, Kashmore and Qamber areas. The total expenditure in 2017-18 rose to Rs6.806 million. The entire money was spent on the same scheme with additional areas of Ghotki, Larkana, Badin, Dadu, Jamshoro, Khairpur, Shikarpur, Matiari, Sanghar, Mirpurkhas, Tando Allahyar and Naushero Feroz.
The expenditure on the energy projects in 2018-19 was the same as the previous year. The funds were spent on the same ‘Electrification of Primary Health Facilities Through Solar PV Technology’ scheme.
In 2019-20, the expenditure increased to Rs53.134 million. The scheme on which the money was spent this time was the Sindh Solar Energy Project (SSEP). It was the first time such a huge expenditure was made on a renewable energy project.
The SSEP is a World Bank-funded project that was first reflected in the budget books in 2017-18 as the Sindh Renewable Energy Development Project at an estimated cost of Rs2.3 billion. In 2018-19, the scheme was not mentioned in the budget books, and in 2019-20, it reappeared with an estimated cost of Rs12.848 billion.
After the first expenditure on this scheme in 2019-20, another Rs112.466 million was spent in 2020-21, Rs164.917 million in 2021-22, and Rs269.3 million in 2022-23.
The total expenditure on energy projects in 2022-23 was 269.654 million as Rs0.334 million was also spent on another scheme titled ‘Survey and Feasibility Study for the Sindh Domestic Biogas Programme’.
The details of the actual spending on the energy projects in 2023-24 are yet to be released.
According to the Environmental and Social Management Framework report of the SSEP, the project aims to promote the use of solar power in Sindh through three key areas — large-scale solar farms, smaller solar setups on buildings and solar systems for homes. The idea is to use government funds to attract private companies to invest for long term in these areas, help local experts develop solar technology and eventually create a self-sustaining solar market.
Speaking to The News, SSEP Project Director Mehfooz A Qazi shared that solar parks under the project would be built in Karachi’s District West and Jamshoro, for which the provincial government had already allotted the land. He added that they had already solarised 33 hospitals in Sindh under the project.
He explained that 50,000 home-based solar systems had been ordered and would reach Karachi by November 9. The project would provide solar home systems to around 200,000 households in areas with limited access to electricity, and benefit about 1.2 million people.
Slow progress
However, these developments seem belated because in his budget speech for the fiscal year 2019-20, the Sindh chief minister vowed to provide of 200,000 solar home systems in rural areas of the province that year.
Moreover, according to the PPP’s 2018 election manifesto, wind and solar parks in Sindh were supposed to add at least 5,000MW to the national grid by 2023. The only progress in this regard until the story was filed is that the energy department has secured land from the Sindh Board of Revenue for solar plants.
The government also seems habitual of including multiple energy schemes in the budget just to make the document look good as nothing is spent on those projects.
In the fiscal year 2020-21, all the expenditure was made on the SSEP and no money was spent on three other energy schemes that had been included in the budget.
In the following year 2021-22, again just one energy scheme was funded and there was no expenditure on the 20 other energy schemes that had been included in the budget.
Besides, it has been more than a decade the energy department’s alternative energy wing is trying to explore the power production through domestic biogas, but it has not achieved any success.
A scheme titled ‘Establishment of Technical Supporting Units in Directorate of Alternative Energy for Wind, Solar & Bio-gas Technologies’ was first included at an estimated cost of Rs60 million in the 2010-11 budget and kept reflecting in the budget documents until 2012-13. After disappearing from the 2013-14 budget books, it reappeared in the 2014-15 budget with no spending and then again disappeared in the 2015-16 budget.
Another scheme emerged in 2016-17 that was titled ‘Bio Gas Plants (Pilot Demonstration)’ at an estimated cost of Rs20 million. It kept reflecting in the budget documents until the 2020-21 budget with no spending.
In the 2022-23 budget, a new scheme titled ‘Survey and Feasibility Study for Sindh Domestic Biogas Programme’ emerged with an estimated cost of Rs16.5 million. At last, the government made some expenditure on this project and of the total estimated amount, Rs0.334 million was spent during 2022-23.
An official of the energy department told The Citizenry that the study was under way and previous schemes related to biogas failed because of their unreasonable costs. The official said Sindh had significant potential in power generation through biowaste, especially in rural areas. Using dung of only two buffaloes could provide gas for an eight-member family, he explained.
The secretary of the energy department, Musaddiq Ahmed, did not respond to repeated phone calls and messages for his comments.
Yearly expenditures for four development schemes are strictly based on the Sindh Finance Department’s Volume V, which details the Public Sector Development Programme. The expenditures for these development schemes may vary in the finance department’s dashboard.
Subedited by Bilal Ahmed
Header image generated by AI
