The Pakistan Army has reportedly made the decision to shift its Cantonments from an expensive energy system to cheaper solar power.
According to media reports quoting sources from the Alternative Energy Development Board (AEDB) have claimed that in order to cope with Energy Crisis Pakistan Army has decided to shift to Sola Power in order to save electricity.
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Colonel Mansoor Mustafa, Director of General Works and Chief Engineer (Army), has apprised the CEO of AEDB, along with several other high-ranking officials, that the Army intends to play its role in the eradication of the current energy crisis through the generation of energy from solar power.
The projects are already approved by the GOP while having the approval, support, and guidance of the Alternative Energy Development Board (AEDB), National Electric Power Regulatory (Nepra) and State Bank of Pakistan.
Pak Army, through Competitive bidding, had awarded projects to the successful vendors (M/s Nizam Energy, M/s Solis Energy Solutions & M/s Foundation Solar Energy).
According to the letter, currently, Military Engineering Services is executing projects of a cumulative 54-MWp at various cantonments across Pakistan. In some projects work executed exceeds over 70% of progress on the ground.
However, vendors are facing issues with respect to the import of offshore components. Therefore, General Headquarters (GHQ) has requested AEDB and other authorities involved in Prime Minister’s Initiative on “Clean and Green Energy” and working on multiple solar initiatives launched under the leadership of the Prime Minister, to align its vendors with the same facility which may be provided to Build-Own- Operate -Transfer (BOOT) providers under the scheme so that it may complete Pak Army’s pending projects which are delayed for the past 6 months.
Military Engineering Services, in collaboration with the contractors, has already put in a lot of effort to make these projects successful. Pakistan Army wants to utilize the support from AEDB to complete these projects and make use of cleaner and cheaper electricity from solar energy.
After explaining the background, Army has requested AEDB to extend help in the LCs opening and import process for the mentioned project which are halted for more than 6 months.
The Government of Pakistan intends to establish solar power plants of 10,000 MW at different locations in the country aimed at minimizing the generation cost of electricity which is now unaffordable for industrial, commercial and domestic consumers.
Remember that Government has already decided to shift the federal government’s buildings from system energy to solar system. Some departments are ready to shift their buildings immediately as they have sufficient funds in the current fiscal year whereas some departments are thinking to start solarization of their buildings from the next fiscal year.
