Nadeem Babar holds an MS degree in civil engineering management.
Nadeem Babar is an important member of IPPs Advisory Council set-up by the IPPs as a lobbying entity. He was also part of the team which negotiated the release of un-audited Rs 480 billion to the IPPs in 2013 (an issue under investigation by NAB after the un-pardonable delay of five years).
The Terms of Reference of Task Force on Energy Reforms are as follows: (i) Objective: the Energy sector, both power and gas continue to be in crises and require major reforms to make them healthy and sustainable. The objective of this task force is to propose reforms that will ensure energy security for Pakistan while ensuring availability of energy. The task force shall work closely with the Ministry of Energy, both Power and Petroleum Divisions, and report progress to the Prime Minister's office on a periodic basis; (ii) propose measures, and necessary regulatory/legislative changes, for improvement of collections and reduction of losses at Transmission & Distribution levels, through governance reforms and enforcement; (iii) develop future strategy for the government owned SOEs (Discos and Gencos) operating in the power sector vis-a-vis privatization, provincialization or otherwise, and propose it to the Federal Cabinet for consideration; (iv) develop a plan to expedite the removal of transmission and distribution constraints and propose a methodology to monitor this progress on a continuous basis; (v) review the methodology of dispatch of all power plants in the system, private and public, and propose revisions, if necessary to operate them more optimally and at lower costs; (vi) a decommissioning policy to be developed for old power plants and identify what units need to be shut down and in what time frame; and to propose a methodology of re-powering old plants, where feasible. Identify possible ways to reduce the cost of generation where possible and propose specific measures, fiscal, contractual, technical, or otherwise to implement the same; (vii) Propose revisions, or analyze revisions proposed by MoF, for the tariff revisions necessary to make the power financially sustainable over the long term by eliminating the generation of fresh circular debt and reduction of existing circular debt; (viii) identify causes of low rate of drilling and departure of many major E&P companies. Propose changes to the Exploration & Production Policies for oil & gas in order to attract more E&P companies and increase the drilling activities; (ix) propose changes in the pricing regimes both of producers and consumers of domestic gas; (x) propose the methodology of best use and allocation of limited local gas production as well as imported LNG; (xi) develop a long-term Integrated Energy Plan for the next 25 years. This plan should have input from all concerned stakeholders, including power companies, E&P companies, refineries, regulators, financiers, and general public; and an initial non-Comprehensive list, of what must be covered in this plan; (xii) propose future structure of the power sector over the next 25 years. This includes the proposed ownership and management of T&D infrastructure, merchants market possibilities, as well as development of all future assets in the power sector; (xiii) demand forecasting for the next 25 years based on different economic scenarios; (xiv) plans for future additions to generation, transmission, and distribution infrastructure; (xv) pre-defined targets for fuel mix over the next 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 years, keeping in mind environmental considerations, local fuel availabilities, and forex considerations; (xvi) a detailed a separate plan, and accompanying policy for renewable sources like wind, solar, biomass and geothermal: This will also require systems studies in terms of integration of same. A separate detailed portion of policy for development of hydel plants, of small medium and large sizes, both run or river as well as storage based; (xvii) conservation policies and proposed measures to enhance it, including setting up of quality standards, building regulations, energy audits and regulation; (xviii) identification of necessary pre-requisites and proposed measures to meet them, in order to move the power market from long term contracts to a merchant market with short term contracts and spot purchases. A transition plan for existing companies with contracts to transfer them into such merchant markets and financing sources and modes to be used for these additions to the system; (xix) propose methodology and award of these projects, both public and private; (xx) policy revisions for E&P sector, both for pricing as well as contracts; (xxi) identification of potential for secondary and tertiary recoveries using new technologies; (xxii) target for domestic production of oil and gas over this horizon; (xxiii) proposed future strategy for LNG imports, new LNG terminals and the commercial structures of these imports; (xxiv) timeline and pre-requisites for the structural changes being proposed for all sub-sectors; and (xxv) necessary regulatory and legislative changes to support these plans.