Power production jumps 14% as new projects come online
Generation from nuclear, coal and RLNG plants increases, hydel’s share in energy mix drops
Power generation through imported gas RLNG grew due to the addition of two new RLNG power plants to the system ie Quaid-e-Azam Thermal Power (Private) Limited and Haveli Bahadur Shah. PHOTO: AFP
KARACHI:
Government’s efforts to overcome the energy crisis started to bear fruit as addition of new nuclear, coal and imported gas-fired power projects helped increase electricity generation in July 2017.
The power regulator has reported an increase of 14% in power production to 12,496.63 gigawatt-hour (GWh) in July from 10,991.82 GWh in the same month of previous year.
“RLNG (re-gasified liquefied natural gas), nuclear and coal-based generation registered a year-on-year surge of 51.4%, 93.7% and 68.2 times, respectively,” Arif Habib Limited analyst Rao Aamir Ali said in a note to his clients.
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He said power generation through imported gas RLNG grew due to the addition of two new RLNG power plants to the system ie Quaid-e-Azam Thermal Power (Private) Limited and Haveli Bahadur Shah.
The uptick in nuclear-based generation was led by new generation from Chashma Nuclear-lll, having capacity of 340MW. Sahiwal’s coal power plant (1,320MW) has also commenced production. Resultantly, coal-based generation has gone up by 68.2 times year-on-year.
“On a month-on-month basis, the generation displayed a growth of 9.4% compared to June 2017,” he added.
According to the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra), the production from nuclear projects rose 1.18 percentage points to 5.13% (641.59 GWh) in total production on an annual basis.
Coal-based generation improved 2.90 percentage points to 2.95% (368.05 GWh) and gas/RLNG-fired production increased 1.62 percentage points to 29.29% (3,269.67 GWh) in the energy mix.
Production from diesel-based generators rose 2.09 percentage points to 2.69% (335.59 GWh) from 0.60%.
On the other hand, Nepra added, production from the largest source hydel dropped to 30.79% (3,847.55 GWh) in July 2017 in the energy mix from 35.92% in the same month of previous year.
Generation from furnace oil-fired projects stood lower, decreasing to 25.59% (3,198.50 GWh) from 28.99%, it added.
Hydel and nuclear are the cheapest sources of power generation followed by coal and RLNG, while diesel and furnace oil-based generation remains highly expensive.
In the last winter, the government switched off a few mega diesel and furnace oil projects to keep the energy price low.
Meanwhile, the analyst added, average cost of generation rose 8.9% year-on-year to Rs5.05 per KWh compared to Rs4.63 in July 2016. “Uptick in the generation cost is mainly due to the lower share of hydel-based generation,” Ali remarked.
“The share of low-cost generation sources to increase going forward. Currently, gas (including RLNG) and hydel-based generation have a major share in the fuel pie of 29.8% and 29.7%, respectively, followed by furnace oil (26.1%).”
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Hydel and coal would be the key contributors to the domestic generation mix. At the end of 2025, hydel would have a share of 38%, whereas coal would have 20% share in the fuel mix, assuming the said plants came online as per deadlines, he commented.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 8th, 2017.
Government’s efforts to overcome the energy crisis started to bear fruit as addition of new nuclear, coal and imported gas-fired power projects helped increase electricity generation in July 2017.
The power regulator has reported an increase of 14% in power production to 12,496.63 gigawatt-hour (GWh) in July from 10,991.82 GWh in the same month of previous year.
“RLNG (re-gasified liquefied natural gas), nuclear and coal-based generation registered a year-on-year surge of 51.4%, 93.7% and 68.2 times, respectively,” Arif Habib Limited analyst Rao Aamir Ali said in a note to his clients.
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He said power generation through imported gas RLNG grew due to the addition of two new RLNG power plants to the system ie Quaid-e-Azam Thermal Power (Private) Limited and Haveli Bahadur Shah.
The uptick in nuclear-based generation was led by new generation from Chashma Nuclear-lll, having capacity of 340MW. Sahiwal’s coal power plant (1,320MW) has also commenced production. Resultantly, coal-based generation has gone up by 68.2 times year-on-year.
“On a month-on-month basis, the generation displayed a growth of 9.4% compared to June 2017,” he added.
According to the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra), the production from nuclear projects rose 1.18 percentage points to 5.13% (641.59 GWh) in total production on an annual basis.
Coal-based generation improved 2.90 percentage points to 2.95% (368.05 GWh) and gas/RLNG-fired production increased 1.62 percentage points to 29.29% (3,269.67 GWh) in the energy mix.
Production from diesel-based generators rose 2.09 percentage points to 2.69% (335.59 GWh) from 0.60%.
On the other hand, Nepra added, production from the largest source hydel dropped to 30.79% (3,847.55 GWh) in July 2017 in the energy mix from 35.92% in the same month of previous year.
Generation from furnace oil-fired projects stood lower, decreasing to 25.59% (3,198.50 GWh) from 28.99%, it added.
Hydel and nuclear are the cheapest sources of power generation followed by coal and RLNG, while diesel and furnace oil-based generation remains highly expensive.
In the last winter, the government switched off a few mega diesel and furnace oil projects to keep the energy price low.
Meanwhile, the analyst added, average cost of generation rose 8.9% year-on-year to Rs5.05 per KWh compared to Rs4.63 in July 2016. “Uptick in the generation cost is mainly due to the lower share of hydel-based generation,” Ali remarked.
“The share of low-cost generation sources to increase going forward. Currently, gas (including RLNG) and hydel-based generation have a major share in the fuel pie of 29.8% and 29.7%, respectively, followed by furnace oil (26.1%).”
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Hydel and coal would be the key contributors to the domestic generation mix. At the end of 2025, hydel would have a share of 38%, whereas coal would have 20% share in the fuel mix, assuming the said plants came online as per deadlines, he commented.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 8th, 2017.