Consumers, not govt, to purchase electricity, says minister 

Federal Minister for Energy Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari said on Sunday that now the government would not purchase electricity, but those producing it and consuming it would sell and purchase it themselves, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

He said that work had been done during the last two years for the supply of electricity to people at cheaper rates. “Reforms have been introduced in the power sector during the aforementioned period,” he added. 

A month ago, Leghari had said that Pakistan no longer faced a shortage of electricity generation but must now invest in energy storage and a more flexible power grid to manage the rapid growth of rooftop solar, describing the country’s energy transition as one driven largely by consumers rather than government policy.

Pakistan has witnessed a sharp rise in rooftop solar installations in recent years as households, farmers and businesses turned to cheaper renewable energy to offset high electricity prices and frequent increases in utility tariffs.

While the shift has reduced daytime demand on the national grid, it has also created new operational challenges because electricity demand remains high after sunset, when solar generation falls sharply.

“Pakistan does not have a generation problem anymore. In many hours of the day, we have a surplus. What we have is a flexibility problem,” Leghari said while addressing an international conference on battery energy storage systems.