Is Sindh serious to takeover power sector?

The Sindh government finally moved towards establishing the Sindh Electric Power Regulatory Authority (SEPRA) to take over the power sector in the province after its cabinet approved the birth of the entity last week.
As per the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) Act 1997, the provinces are allowed to construct power houses and grid stations and lay transmission lines for use within the province, and determine the tariff for distributing electricity within the province.
The step is widely welcomed nonetheless, with a caution that the Sindh government ought to take complete responsibility and demonstrate a level of governance, otherwise the authority is doomed to add more problems.
Also, the move is understood to have a background as the provincial government had found itself in a narrow street in the backdrop of its renewable power projects, and of them, almost all had been stuck up and failed to find a place in the center’s indicative generation capacity plan.
Sindh Energy Minister Imtiaz Ahmed Shaikh has been expressing his anguish about Sindh’s renewable power projects being kept at bay in Islamabad. Last year, the provincial government had made up its mind about setting up SEPRA, which finally got node last week.
But the question is: would the establishment of SEPRA minimize the woes of Sindh? The government says it is aimed at improving energy quality and eliminating energy poverty in the province. Syed Murad Ali Shah, the chief minister, believes the decision is a historic step toward power generation, transmission, and distribution.
Energy Minister Imtiaz Ahmed Shaikh reportedly told the meeting that Sindh is blessed with an entire value chain of energy resources, like coal, solar, and wind energy among other things, with cost-effective access through air, land, and sea routes.
Shaikh said that these resources can be used to generate electricity wheeled through the transmission network of the Sindh Grid Company to meet the demand of household, commercial, and industrial consumers of the province at affordable prices.
He said that this step would resolve the issue of constraints faced by the provincial power projects, especially the renewable energy projects within the national framework, in terms of non-inclusion in the Indicative Generation Capacity Expansion Plan 2021, and lack of further processing by the federal entities.
If the provincial chief executive and his ministers do the things in genuine terms that they are stating above, then the move would surely yield positive results and the people would come out of electricity poverty gradually, as Sindh has abundant proven potential for wind and solar energy.
But the track record of the Sindh government spread over a decade shows dismal performance in every sector. For example, the Sindh Transmission Despatch Company (STDC) which transports power has only 60 employees and of them only 3 to 4 are engineers. The Company looks after only one line laid from Omni Group’s power plant in Nooriabad. However, NTDC, looking after thousands of kilometer-long transmission lines, has over 1000 engineers, no matter the performance. Would the Sindh government be able to raise the level of expertise in STDC? If yes, then the conditions may improve, but again it is connected with the governance problem.
If serious efforts are afoot, the confidence of the lenders will improve, who at least in the case of the privatization of DISCOs, seemed not interested at all. As a result, the central government allowed the Sindh government to take over two DISCOs in Sindh, such as Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (HESCO) and Sukkur Electric Supply Company (SEPCO). It must not be forgotten that the Punjab government has refused to take over DISCOs in Punjab. Now, a part of the circular debt will be diverted as per the wishes of the IMF. Now, the performance of Sindh’s DISCOs is no secret anymore..
However, many senior engineers say that the Sindh government should restrict SEPRA to the terms of renewables and take steps to transport renewable power locally so that it should be away from the issues of joining NTDC—the company which is already at the lower end of its performance and has very little knowledge of scenario in Sindh.