The Alternative Energy Development Board has issued simplified Certification Regulations for installers of solar and wind projects in the country in line with the vision of the present government’s policy of ‘Ease of Doing Business’ and for the promotion of clean and green energy.
The Alternative Energy Development Board (AEDB) has enacted new Alternative Energy Development Board (Certification) Regulations, 2021, effective from 30 August 2021.
Previously, the AEDB had approved the AEDB (Certification) Regulations in 2018 for the safe, secure, and quality-assured supply of solar and wind energy generation projects, products, systems, installation, and servicing thereof for small-scale industrial, agricultural, commercial and residential consumers.
Under the Regulations, the AEDB carried out the certification of vendors/installers/service providers for the installation of wind and solar systems (both net-metering systems and off-grid systems). In this regard, the AEDB has certified a total of 126 vendors/ installers/service providers who have installed approximately 13,000 net-metering-based systems across Pakistan with a cumulative capacity of more than 200MW.
The CEO of the AEDB, Shah Jahan Mirza, stated that the new simplified Regulations will catalyze the promotion and deployment of clean and green energy in Pakistan through Distributed Generation exploiting Pakistan’s huge wind and solar energy potential.
The new Regulations have been formulated after extensive consultation with all the stakeholders in the public and private sectors to simplify the procedures laid down in the existing regulations for the opening of the market to create competition. Furthermore, to give a broader scope to the Regulations and to allow certified companies to avail of the concessional financing of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), the Regulations are applicable to all sizes of projects for Distributed Generation except net-metering which is up to 1MW only. The term of the certificate under the new Regulations has also been increased from one year to three years.
By virtue of these Regulations, the certified Installer will be responsible to provide the minimum warranties for the wind and solar energy equipment as prescribed under them.
Additionally, the Installer will also ensure that the projects and equipment comprised therein are compliant with international standards and specifications.
