National grid to get additional 6000-MW by 2010-11

Karachi: The national grid will have an additional electricity of 6,000 megawatts by 2010-11, as a result of new projects in both public and private sector on fast track basis.

This was stated by the Pakistan Electric Power Company Managing Director Munawar Baseer Ahmad while delivering a keynote address at a seminar on 'Power situation in Pakistan and role of ABB-as a partner in power generation,' organised by ABB Pakistan here on Monday.

He pointed out that the financial close of 15 new projects with a generating capacity of 2,868 MW have been achieved and lot of planning and due diligence was going on in this regard. 'In addition, a new 500 MW power project will be ready by the end of this year, while another 300 MW project was being rehabilitated by Wapda,' he added.

Baseer said that an open cycle power project of 300 MW was also coming up on fast track basis in the private sector, besides a 700 MW power unit. He specifically mentioned that the government has approved the setting up of power projects with a generation capacity of 2,000 MW in the public sector to overcome power shortage in the country.

He said that KESC has to arrange its own power generation to meet the growing demand for Karachi. Baseer made it clear that there was no agreement between Wapda and the KESC for the power purchase. He said KESC was not able to pay the outstanding amount, which runs into billions of rupees. If we (Pepco) do not get the payment against the supplied electricity, how can KESC expect to get power from us, he noted.

He said KESC also needs to recover Rs 15 billion from government departments and PEPCO arrears are more than that amount. He was of the opinion that Pakistan must increase the share of coal-based power projects in the energy mix. The CEO of KESC, Lieutenant General Mohammad Amjad (Retd) said that demand for electricity was increasing at a rate of 8 percent per annum in the metropolis. He said in the early 90s, KESC used to export electricity to Wapda, which now caters to about 27 percent of KESC's total requirements.

He said that a project of 220 MW was coming up at Port Qasim while work on two power projects will start by end of this month and two more in July this year. They will be completed in July 2009. Responding to a question about electricity shortage in Karachi, he said steps were being taken to overcome this problem with the help of combined efforts.

He said the utility company is like to face a shortage of 300 MW in the coming summer, but this will be met with the availability of additional power from KESC's own refurbished units. He pointed out that distribution network has been improved ahead of summer to further reduce load shedding in the city. Amjad said that line losses have been reduced by 2.5 percent in the last six months and KESC was on target to achieve cut of in power theft by 4 percent in a year's time.