Pakistan has moved a major clean-energy project forward in the north: the Private Power and Infrastructure Board (PPIB) has invited consultants to apply for third-party validation services for the non-solar works of a 100 MW distributed photovoltaic (PV) solar project in Gilgit-Baltistan. The procurement is open to international firms, and applications must be submitted electronically by 30 November 2026.
The expression-of-interest document, issued on 27 October 2026 under reference P172878, marks the first formal step of the project. At this stage, the board is pre-qualifying consulting firms; only the pre-qualified applicants will later be invited to bid in the Request for Proposals (RFP) process.
What the consultant will actually verify
This is not a contract to build the solar plants — it is a validation role. The selected consultant will independently verify the project’s non-solar works: transmission and distribution lines, fiber optic networks, substations, approach roads, and the project-wide control, monitoring and energy management systems.
The verification will cover each component through its applicable completion, commissioning, energisation, taking-over or commercial-operations date. The consultant must also ensure that procurement, designs, materials, installation, testing, commissioning, contractual milestones and payment claims comply with the applicable contracts, approved designs and specifications. All solar plant equipment itself falls outside the scope of these consultancy works.
How and when to apply
The opportunity is international and follows a single-stage, one-envelope process. Applications must be filed through the EPADS v2.0 electronic procurement system on or before Monday, 30 November 2026 at 10:30 AM; e-applications will be opened the same day at 11:00 AM. Manual submissions will not be entertained.
PPIB, a statutory organisation under the Ministry of Energy (Power Division), is handling the procurement, while the Water and Power Department of the Government of Gilgit-Baltistan will act as the executing agency for the project.
Why distributed solar is booming in Pakistan
The Gilgit-Baltistan project arrives as distributed solar is reshaping Pakistan’s power mix. An analysis by the Pakistan Solar Association in August found that distributed solar supplied 27% of the country’s electricity in 2025 — an extraordinary share for a technology that barely registered a few years ago.
Research published last month adds nuance to the boom: registered net metering is concentrated among higher-income customers in the best-served utility areas, while unregistered off-grid and behind-the-meter systems dominate where the grid is least reliable, creating what analysts describe as a hidden boom of distributed solar. For a mountainous region like Gilgit-Baltistan, where extending the national grid is costly and difficult, distributed plants close to demand make practical sense — and this 100 MW tender is the state moving to formalise that logic.
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