'2,700 megawatts additional power to be generated in three years'

Caretaker Minister for Water and Power, Tariq Hameed has said that 2,700 MW additional power will be generated in coming three years with the completion of Private Power Infrastructure Board's (PPIB) projects.
Talking to APP, the minister said PPIB had been directed to remove bottlenecks in small hydel projects having capacity of 100 MW to 200 MW to bridge the power demand and supply gap.
He said to overcome load-shedding problem besides starting effective management Wapda will get one rental plant while two rental plants have already been inaugurated having total capacity of 286 MW. He added that 150 MW power will be produced by 2008 through windmills while 600 houses have been provided solar energy in all the four provinces. He said that Wapda has planned to start new power plant at Guddu to improve additional power upto 800 MW during 2008-09.
Tariq Hameed said Mangla raising project will be completed by June next and its filling will be in next summer due to which capacity generation will increase to estimated 180 MW.
He said development work has been started on Jinnah hydel project at Jinnah Barrage by Wapda to generate 94 MW electricity to be completed in 2010.
Hameed said the ministry had planned to purchase 100,000 energy saver bulbs to be distributed in hospitals, educational institutions and other government offices to help save energy.
He said these saver bulbs would also be placed at Utility Stores, as it saves 80 percent energy than other bulbs. He added the decision of closing shops at 8:00 pm has helped save 300 MW electricity.
He said that all mega power projects would be completed by 2016 including Basha-Diamer, Kalabagh, Akora, Munda and Kurram-Tungi to further generate 9,000 MW electricity in the country.
He said electricity demand would also be met through small and medium power generation projects under public-private partnership. Hameed said that a comprehensive strategy is being chalked out for utilisation of coal in power generation to balance the supply and demand of electricity.
The minister said study on Kalabagh Dam has been completed while engineering work of Basha-Diamer Dam will be completed by the end of 2008.
He said the contract award of the project is likely in 2009 while deadline of 2016 has been fixed for its completion. He added that private sector will complete Munda Dam while pending work of Khuram-Tungi will be started within three months.