Water and Power Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar has called for accelerating work on wind power projects with a combined capacity of 1,000 megawatts. PHOTO: FILE
The decision was taken in the 26th board meeting of the Alternative Energy Development Board (AEDB) held here on Tuesday, presided over by Federal Water and Power Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar.
AEDB Chief Executive Officer Arif Alauddin, public and private sector members and senior officials of AEDB attended the meeting.
Alauddin said “we have proposed an increase in share of wind power generation in the energy mix under a new code to make it acceptable to the national grid.”
The board approved the grid code for wind power projects, according to which their share was enhanced from 5% to 20% in the energy mix.
According to a statement issued here, Water and Power Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar called for accelerating work on wind power projects with a combined capacity of 1,000 megawatts in order to increase electricity production in the country and “provide cheaper power”.
He stressed that electricity generation from domestic resources was a priority of the government and various steps had been taken to stimulate investment in the sector. In a bid to woo investors, upfront tariff has already been set for wind power projects and tariff for solar electricity projects will be announced soon.
Participants of the meeting said test run of a wind power project of 50MW had started and it would start commercial production next month. Three projects of 150MW are in the process of construction while 12 projects of 1,100MW will achieve financial close this year and next. Participants also approved merger of three wind projects of 30MW.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 27th, 2013.
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@numbersnumbers: we already make solar panels and wind mills in Pakistan but there are very expensive 25000rs for 15 watt
This is a good move for Pakistan, though some issues have to be understood: (1) wind power is only a supplement to the generating Grid due to the fact that it cannot carry the BASE LOAD due to total dependence on the wind blowing at site! No wind = no power! (2) wind sites must be carefully selected for maximum sustained air flow, sometimes existing offshore some distance. In any case, one of the logistics issues is that distance from the customer or national power Grid can cause severe line losses. (3) power storage schemes also have to be considered to "store" electricity generated during non peak usage hours! An example would be that, if there was a projected huge wind farm to be deployed offshore, the excess electricity generated non peak could be used to pump large amounts of seawater UPHILL to very large constructed reservoirs! During peak hours this seawater could then flow down the same pipes through hydro generators to support the peak load. If properly designed, this system cycle could run daily from peak to low demand!