'2,700 megawatts additional power to be generated in three years'

Islamabad: Around 2,700 MW additional power will be generated in the coming three years, with the completion of Private Power Infrastructure Board (PPIB) projects.

Caretaker Minister for Water and Power, Tariq Hameed, talking to APP, said that PPIB had been directed to remove bottlenecks in small hydel projects having capacity of 100MW to 200MW to bridge the power demand and supply gap.

He said that to overcome load-shedding problem besides starting effective management, Wapda would get one rental plant, while two rental plants have already been inaugurated having capacity of 286MW to overcome power shortage in the country.

He said that 150MW power would be produced by 2008 through windmills, while 600 houses have been provided solar energy in all the four provinces. He said that Wapda has planned to start the new power plant at Guddu to improve additional power up to 800MW during 2008-09.

He said that Mangla raising project would be completed by June and its filling will be in the next summer due to which capacity generation would increase to estimated 180 MW.

He said that development work has been started on Jinnah hydel project at Jinnah Barrage by Wapda to generate 94MW electricity to be completed in 2010. Tariq said that the Ministry has planned to purchase 100,000 energy-saver bulbs to be distributed in hospitals, educational institutions and other government offices to help save energy.