Pakistan is working on a new auction plan to deploy 9GW of PV systems. The plan is to install 6GW of large PV plants, 2GW of medium-sized PV projects, and 1GW of rooftop PV systems.

Tractebel, the engineering business subsidiary of French energy developer Engie, announced that it will support the new strategy developed by the Pakistan Alternative Energy Development Board (AEDB), which aims to add 9GW of PV systems by 2030.

Tractebel is currently working on providing technical and economic analysis for factors such as land availability, cost, siting and development of PV projects, all of which will be considered in the upcoming auction.

Tractebel said: "We will provide support and advice to the Independent Power Producer (IPP) and Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) tender documents, as well as the entire tender process including contract negotiations. This mission is expected to be completed in early 2024."

The Pakistani government's auction plan calls for the installation of 6GW of large PV plants, 2GW of medium-sized PV projects, and 1GW of rooftop PV systems.

In May 2022, the World Bank said that for Pakistan to meet its clean energy targets, it needed to quickly introduce renewable energy auctions, which had been approved by its energy regulator in 2017. The World Bank has proposed a two-track strategy for Pakistan that includes the establishment of large renewable energy parks, mainly in the wind-rich Baluchistan and Sindh provinces, and the possibility of auctioning off small clean energy projects near substations with usable capacity.

As outlined in the report, the installed capacity of the photovoltaic systems to be auctioned should be at least 50MW and above, with the installed capacity of the photovoltaic parks ranging from 300MW to 600MW. The price of electricity for photovoltaic systems shall be determined no later than 33 weeks after the commencement of each auction procedure. The maximum bid for each auction should be determined by reference to previous practice, and the resulting power purchase Agreement (PPA) should last 20 to 25 years.

According to a study released by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the cumulative installed capacity of photovoltaic systems in Pakistan will be about 1.24GW by the end of 2022. Editor/Xu Shengpeng