13,000 MW electricity to be added to national grid by 2017

Lahore: The incumbent government since its inception has taken pragmatic steps to over power menace of power load-shedding and launched many projects to add 13,000 MW to the national grid by 2017.

Official sources told APP here Wednesday that the PML-N government completed delayed projects of 2,100MW soon after coming into power after general elections 2013.

The government evolved an effective anti-power load shedding strategy for giving maximum relief to the people and already announced Power Generation Policy 2015. Under the new policy, the provinces were also empowered to generate and distribute electricity.

The sources said that important milestones reached in the last two years to overcome energy crisis included China- Pakistan Economic Corridor Projects, water sector energy Projects and 2400 MW RLNG based power plants.

Giving the details, they said under the umbrella of CPEC projects, two lists of projects were agreed as part of the package.

Early Harvest projects of 10,400 MW and Actively Promoted projects of 6,645 MW are included in the overall CPEC energy portfolio.

However, they said projects of 8,375 MW would achieve financial closure during 2015.

Ground-breaking of three wind projects of 200 MW, one hydel project of 720 MW and one solar power project of 900 MW had already performed by the Chinese President and Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif on April 20.

Regarding, water sector energy projects, the sources said that a large number of energy cum irrigation projects have been undertaken by the government to tap the hydel resources of the country.

About 12,000 MW hydropower projects were currently under process. Several feasibilities on the Indus River cascade were also underway for optimal utilization of its full potential, they said.

They said an important step has been taken to improve energy mix in the country and base power generation at the load centers to avoid long distance transmission losses. In this respect, 2,400 MW RLNG based power plants at Baloki, District of Kasur and Haveli Bahadur Shah, District Jhang have been initiated, they said.

A special purpose vehicle (SPV) has also been established and the project has been approved by ECNEC at a total cost of Rs. 200 billion from the Federal Public Service Development Programme.

The sources said that the government was also taking all necessary measures for development of renewable energy projects by the private sector.

An investment of more than one billion dollars has been made in the wind energy sector in the last two years. A total of 30 Wind power projects with 1760 MW capacity were being pursued at present out of which nine projects of 470 MW capacity have achieved financial close, they said.

In the solar energy sector, 31 projects with 999.6 MW capacity for on Grid solar PV have been initiated during the period 2013-15.

After the announcement of the Framework for Power Co-Generation in 2013 (Bagasse/ Biomass), some 1500-2000 MW of Biomass power is expected to be generated during the next three years, they said.

As many as 30 wind power projects (1760 MW) were being pursued by Alternative Energy Development Board, which were at different stages of development.
The sources said that three wind power projects of 149.5 MW total capacity have achieved commercial operation during 2013-15 and were supplying electricity to National Grid.

The sources said that in order to tap the potential of electricity generation from sugar mills, the government on recommendation of AEDB announced the Framework for Power Co-Generation 2013 (Bagasse/Biomass).

They said 1500-2000 MW of power is expected to be generated in next 2-3 years. LOIs have been issued to ten investors / sugar mills under this framework for total capacity of 313 MW.