The provincial government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has decided to sell the 18MW electricity generated by Pehur Hydel Power Project (HPP) to local industries through wheeling arrangement. The decision is taken to boost industry in the province and generate employment opportunities for the people.
According to sources in KP Energy & Power Department, the process is in final stage of implementation and once this model of wheeling is implemented successfully in case of Pehur then it should be replicated to other hydropower projects also.
The provincial government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has already completed seven hydel power projects of 161.2megawatt capacity through its Pakhtunkhwa Energy Development Organization (PEDO). Four projects including 81MW Malakand-III HPP, Pehur HPP, Shishi HPP and Rehun HPP were completed during the period from 2002-2013. These projects are not only contributing to reduce loadshedding, rather also generating annual revenue of Rs2.5 billion per annum for the province.
The sitting PTI government in its previous period had completed three hydel power projects of 52.2MWcapacity that includes 36.6MW Daral HPP in Swat, 17MW Ranolia HPP, Kohistan and 2.6MW Machai HPP Mardan respectively.
These projects have been connected with national grid and energy purchase agreement for Daral & Ranolia HPP has been signed with Central Power Purchase Agency (CPPA) and expecting revenue amounting to Rs 1.8 billion from these projects.
Similarly, five more hydropower projects of 214MW including 40MW Koto in Dir Lower. 11MW Karora New in Shangla, 10MW Jabori, Mansehra, 84MW Matiltan, Swat and 69MW Lawi in Chitral are under construction.
The first three projects would be completed in the year 2020 while the remaining would be completed in 2022. Construction work on all these projects started during financial year 2015-16, after completion they will earn revenue of Rs 8 billion per annum. However, in case of the success of the wheeling arrangements, the provincial government is likely to provide the electricity produced by these projects to local industries also.
Meanwhile, World Bank (WB), Asian Development Bank (ADB) and International Finance Corporation (IFC) would provide US$ 4 billion for construction of eight hydropower projects in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
These projects would be completed in a period of four to six years and would help KP province to produce 1300 MW electricity and enable the province to sell electricity to other provinces besides providing affordable electricity to local industries.
KP has a huge potential to produce energy, which besides arresting unemployment would also be utilized for strengthening economy of the province. Four hydropower projects of 779 MW have been included in annual development programme to cater the growing energy demands of consumers, agriculture and industrial sector.
The Energy and Power is the only provincial sector that earns a receipt of Rs 91 billion per annum for the province, which is more than the total income of all other departments.
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