“All bidding processes, advertisements and contracts will be finalised by March 2014...all plants will be operational in three to five years,” says Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif. PHOTO: APP
Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif said on Wednesday 6,000 megawatts of electricity will be generated through a new coal power initiative in the Punjab.
Addressing a press conference at 180-H Model Town, he said the volume of investment for the project was around $10 billion.
He said coal-based power plants would be established at Qadirabad in Sahiwal district, at Bhiki in Sheikhupura district, at Haveli Bahadur Shah in Jhang district, at Balloki in Kasur district, at Tarinda Sawe Wala in Rahim Yar Khan district and at village Karamdad Qureshi in Muzaffargarh district.
Shahbaz Sharif said these places had been chosen on account of their geographical location. “They are close to big cities or energy consumption hubs… electricity generated there can be easily connected to the national grid… there is also abundance of subsoil water in these areas.”
He said the provincial government would initiate and set up its two plants at Qadirabad with a capacity of 1,320 MW. He said the government would start the bidding process in mid February and contracts would be awarded by March, 2014. He hoped that these plants would become functional within two and half years.
Shahbaz Sharif said investors from across the globe, including India, would be invited to bid for the other plants. “All bidding processes, advertisements and contracts will be finalised by March 2014...all plants will be operational in three to five years.”
The chief minister said $7 billion would be spent on generating electricity. “The remaining three billion will be used for other expenditures… the investment will create thousands of jobs.”
Why Punjab
He said the provincial government had earlier decided to set up coal-based power plants in coastal areas.
Shahbaz Sharif said the plan was dropped because electricity losses during transmission from coastal areas to the national grid equalled the cost of transferring imported coal from coastal areas to the Punjab.
He said during his visit to the Indian Punjab, he had discovered that coal-based power plants at Jhaghar and Achar Khand were using coal imported from thousands of miles away.
Why coal
The chief minister said, “India’s share of energy from coal amounts to 70,000 MW… Europe generates 60 per cent of its energy using coal, and 65 per cent electricity generated in the world is generated from coal.”
He said 65 per cent energy generated in Pakistan was thermal-based and 35 percent was hydropower. He said coal-based energy in Pakistan amounted to less than 1 per cent.
Shahbaz Sharif said the country imported fuel worth $10 billion including coal worth US $5 billion.
He said the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) had decided the electricity tariff - Rs19 for oil-based electricity and Rs9 for coal-based.
“Super critical boiler power points will be used at the plants to lessen toxic emissions… the provincial government will follow all laws of federal and provincial environmental agencies.”
Imported coal
The chief minister said there were 500 million tonnes of coal in the Punjab but its mechanical machining was not feasible.
He said coal-based power plants needed thousands of tonnes of coal every day. “It is not feasible for manual mining… in the short-term coal will be imported,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 23rd, 2014.
COMMENTS (13)
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Bhikhi coal power plant is may be good but fertile land will be spoil and lot of farmers will deprive from land it is lost and i think it can be moved only four or five mile down stream QB link canal where agri land is not too much fertile and farmers are with big holdings here govt is going to build grid it is also very populated area near BHikhi and it will be catastrophic for enviornment
@Salman Ahmed: Shahbaz Sharif works tirelessly to improve Punjab and Pakistan. That's why he is respected the world over as a model of hard work and dedication. People like him are the future of the nation. He will ensure that the energy issue will be overcome.
At least one politician is working and doing positive work. Compared with the complainers and blamers, he is doing great. God speed!
@Bakhtiar Wain: Issue is: all the IPPs are Diesel based which are no better than a generator at home. We got to produce cheap electricity. Some of these IPPs can be brought into action after their conversion to coal based ones. Regarding Capacity, its no longer the case, even with IPPs we'd be short of our requirement.
@Bakhtiar Wain: Just keep the record correct, plz keep in mind that we don't have excess capacity. Let me give you idea. Gudhu Thermal Power has installed capacity of over 1000 MW, but can we produce even 500 MW from there. Answer is a big NO, becuase the units are too old and it is not easy to make them operational. Another example could be the case of KESC, which primarly rely on its share from National Grid, instead of producing eleceticity by themselve. Here, one can blame gas shortages, as KESC is not getting the gas allocated to them. A question could, who stops them using thermal units. KESC is reluctant to using this option becuase of cost consideredation, depite having installed capacity. There are so many other examples as well.
To generate $10 Billion investment in Pakistan you may want to reconsider your deadline of March. Believe this is not the "Dubai"
Hey! Just wondering when the bullet train is coming from Peshawar to Karachi? Day Dreamers!
@Khurrum: BOT is not that how simplistic. Somebody has to give equivalent amount of sovereign guarantees related to return on investment along with a take or pay power contract. This announcement is worthless without outlining source of funds and power purchase price. Why doesn't government realize that we have surplus capacity; the issue is that we cannot afford to buy it from IPPs. Installing new capacity at the same purchase price (or even a bit lower) would only aggravate the situation
@Guru: Independent investor groups from around the world will be invited to compete in the bidding process in March and most probably the projects will run on a Build–operate–transfer (BOT) in the longer run.
Only One CM who is a leader in his own and the best administrator the Nation has ever seen.He will beat any CM with his performance hand down. Brilliant work sir...u truly r a SIR .
Nice to hear all these announcements, but where will get these billions of dollars of fund !