Pakistan set to inject 3500 MW into national grid

Pakistan set to inject 3500 MW into national grid

ISLAMABAD- Agencies-: Energy deprived Pakistan was set to add more than 3500 MW to the national grid after the country’s top economic committee approved five mega power projects on Thursday.

The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC), which met at the prime minister’s office with Finance Minister Ishaq Dar in the chair, has approved five development projects in energy sector amounting to Rs1.3 trillion.

The meeting approved K-I and K-II Nuclear Projects situated in Karachi with generation capacity of 2200 MW, Nandipur in Punjab with generation capacity of 425 MW, and Neelum-Jhelum hydro electric project in AJK with generation capacity of 969 MW.

In his opening remarks, the finance minister said that ECNEC is a premier constitutional body where all projects amounting to more than one billion are approved.

He said the previous practice had been that anticipatory approvals were given by the finance minister for approval of projects, the discretion that he said he would like to dispense with and would like every project to be discussed at his forum before it is approved.

This would mean that more frequent meetings of ECNEC would be held from now on, Dar added.

The minister said that finances for all the approved projects should be timely arranged and their monitoring would be carried out regularly so that they do not suffer or delayed from lack of resources. The projects should be completed on schedule so that its benefits and value for the money are achieved, he added.

The finance minister said that the government had taken a bold decision to settle the circular debt which stood at Rs503 billion and has already paid Rs322 billion to private power producers while the remaining would be settled within announced time.

This measure would add 1700MW of electricity to the national grid. The IPPs have been mandated to use coal instead of oil and bring about the change in the next 18 months which will bring down the average cost of power production.

Ishaq Dar said that today’s meeting is important because we are taking up energy projects with the total generation capacity of more than 3500 MW which when completed would not only be a substantial addition to the national grid but also produce electricity at low cost.

The minister said that 15 years back the energy mix was 75 per cent based on cheap fuel and 25 per cent on costly oil whereas it has now totally changed to 25 per cent based on cheap fuel and 75 per cent on furnace oil.