Energy needs: Transmission, distribution lines projects ‘on track’

Nawaz chairs cabinet committee meeting on energy

ISLAMABAD: The cabinet committee on energy, which met with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in the chair on Tuesday, discussed at length the status of work on setting up new transmission lines and to streamline the power distribution system.

The meeting reviewed all on-going power projects in terms of timelines, including clean energy projects, coal-fired, hydel and LNG power plants that will add significant electricity to the national grid during 2017 and before March 2018, said a statement issued by the PM House.

“Besides, the meeting also deliberated on the future power generation projects to cater for the ever-increasing energy requirements of the country in the wake of increased economic activities, massive infrastructure and industrial development across the length and breadth of the country.”

The meeting was informed that bottlenecks are being removed in the distribution system to ensure uninterrupted supply of electricity to consumers. The prime minister appreciated the good work done by officials of the Ministry of Water and Power and said by the end of his government’s tenure reliance on costly fuel for power generation will be reduced to a great deal.

“Our holistic reforms in the energy sector and efforts for generating additional power through diversifying the energy mix will help in meeting the future energy requirements of the country,” said the prime minister.

He added that the present government has unprecedented edge to execute power generation projects, having capacity of more than the power generation initiatives taken during the last twenty years.

The water and power secretary briefed the meeting that circular debt has been capped; recoveries are satisfactory and line losses have been minimised. The meeting was informed that transmission and distribution lines projects are on track.

The prime minister said the focus of the present government right from the first day was to resolve the energy crisis in the country and add sufficient energy to the national grid. “Besides, we are determined to provide cheaper electricity to our people,” the prime minister added.

“We will keep exploring new power generation projects on micro as well as mega levels to ensure sustained and uninterrupted electricity for our future generations, a duty that previous governments were unable to fulfil,” the prime minister said.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 30^th, 2016.