KE to add 640MW of clean energy in two years

Foreign firms to pump over $400m in wind, solar energy projects

KARACHI:

K-Electric (KE) will include 640 megawatts of cheap, renewable electricity to its system in the next two years through solar and wind energy projects, which will lead to a notable decrease in the cost of production, said KE Chief Executive Officer Moonis Abdullah Alvi during an informal chat with The Express Tribune.

Responding to a query, Alvi stated that solar and wind energy projects were expected to receive investments of more than $400 million from 12 companies hailing from Europe, China and the Middle East. These alternative energy projects will be installed in Balochistan’s cities of Hub, Uthal and Bela as well as Karachi’s Surjani Town area. With the use of cost-effective, renewable energy by the consumers, the overall electricity consumption will go down by 200 to 250MW.

Read K-Electric requests Rs3 per unit tariff increase

Alvi elaborated that because of a surge in tariffs, the theft of electricity had risen by 10% in Karachi, line losses had increased and more and more people were not paying their electricity bills.

The CEO pointed out that 80% of Karachi areas had earlier been exempted from load-shedding but now the ratio “has shrunk to 72%”, driven by the increase in line losses. KE has embarked on a pilot project of installing smart meters, as part of which 10,000 consumers will be provided with such meters on a trial basis.

Alvi stressed that the smart meters project would be expanded after evaluating results of the pilot project. A smart meter costs Rs40,000 to Rs45,000, but in the case of bulk orders, its cost is expected to come down. He revealed that smart meters had been installed on all pole-mounted transformers (PMTs) in Karachi. These devices provide data every 15 minutes.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 6^th, 2024.

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