The government is committed to encourage and promote modern energy conservation technologies and techniques to minimise impact of on-going energy crises. Punjab Minister for Agriculture Ahmed Ali Auolakh said this while addressing the launching ceremony of 'latest energy saving technology in Pakistan' with the brand name of 'Power boss' here on Thursday.

Bio-diesel is an environment friendly fuel, with far less emissions than mineral diesel fuel, and is the perfect solution for the food and fuel crisis, according to NED University of Engineering and Technology, Department of Environmental Engineering Co-Chairman Associate Prof. Dr Mohammed Harun.

"The fuel can be obtained by chemically converting non-edible oil from plants that can thrive on marginal land and can be cultivated with saline and waste water. Farmers should be given incentives to grow these non-edible crops, as fuel prices are consistently rising,' said Prof. Harun.

All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA), in association with the National Productivity Organisation (NPO), has launched the second phase of energy audit of textile mills under the energy conservation programme for the textile industry.

Akber Sheikh, Chairman APTMA, Punjab speaking on the occasion has said that there was potential for saving 10- 15 percent of energy in the textile industry by minimising wastages and realising efficiency of operations. The current level of energy consumption by the textile industry is around 1500MW.

The Ministry of Water and Power was committed to promote alternative energy to overcome the acute shortage of energy and to meet the growing demand of electricity in the country. Minister for Water and Power Raja Pervaiz Ashraf said this while talking to Tariq Sayeed, President Saarc Chamber and former President FPCCI who called on him here along with Zubair Ahmed Malik, former Vice President FPCCI.

Petrol price hiked again: Pakistan

As militants disrupt power supply to nearly seventy per cent population of the provincial capital, power authorities remain clueless about how to ensure an alternative power supply system to the metropolitan.

Mighty towers on Sheikh Mohammadi transmission line, which bring electricity from Tarbela Power House to the 2.3 million consumers of the NWFP, are at risk most of the time owing to growing subversive activities, virtually turning it into another Sui.

The Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (Hesco) is planning to establish 16 new grids stations in different parts of Sindh so as to ensure uninterrupted power supply to consumers, said the Chief Executive Officer of Hyderabad Electric Supply Company, Guftar Anjum.

Speakers and experts at a workshop on "Ways and Means to Overcome Energy Crisis in Pakistan' have urged the government to find other means to explore, exploit and conserve energy resources, if the country is to overcome the ongoing power crisis.

The workshop, held at the Abdul Qadeer Khan auditorium of the Federal Urdu University for Science and Technology, will continue till Wednesday.

Experts at a seminar have called for making judicious use of the country's natural resources rather than banking on foreign ideas and imported fuel as such reliance has placed the country in a very difficult situation.

They were speaking at the inaugural session of the two-day seminar on Energy crisis and its solutions, which was organised by the geology department of the Federal Urdu University for Arts, Science and Technology in collaboration with the Higher Education Commission on Tuesday.

Pakistan government has set an ambitious tagret of around $20 billion as foreign investment in the energy sector, for which it is actively interacting with top companies in the USA. Highlighting the salient features of the upcoming energy conference.

The Minister of Information, Sherry Rehman, told Business Recorder that the international energy roundtable would be instrumental in attracting maximum foreign investment in the energy sector through institutional and legal support to foreign investment.