The Ministry of Water & Power and Private Power Infrastructure Board (PPIB) have invited international parties through international competitive bidding to set up power generating units with cumulative capacity of 1300 megawatt to meet the fast growing demand which stands at over 8 percent. The plants are estimated to cost $1.5 billion, sources said on Monday. In this connection, the Ministry and PPIB is organising a road show in Dubai on February 20, and another in United Kingdom on March 2, in which the Board would brief the investors about the up-coming three power plants.
The first gas-based power plant with generating capacity of 450 megawatt (MW) is to be established at Faisalabad. The project will be provided about 100 mmcfd gas by Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited (SNGPL).
The second power plant, with generating capacity of 500-MW, is to be constructed at Uch, in Balochistan. In this regard, the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) is starting work on feasibility study. Investors from private sector will be invited through ICB. Uch gas field in Balochistan is owned by the Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDC). It has sufficient low BTU gas reserve available on long term. The OGDC is already supplying 250 mmcfd gas to Uch Power Limited (UPL) for 586-MW power project.
The OGDC has conducted a reservoir study which shows that adequate additional gas reserves are available over and above the ones already committed to UPL.
The third power plant with generation capacity of 350-MW is to be built with a provision of dual project near Lahore. The PPIB and Wapda have identified Chichoki Mallian, a town near Lahore, for this project.
Wapda is initiating feasibility study for the project for its optimum capacity, after which the project will be processed under ICB mode. All three power plants would cost about $1.5 billion.
This would be considered as the second biggest investment in private power plants after Hub Power Company Limited (Hubco).
The consumption of electricity has been consistently rising in recent years. The electricity consumption has increased by about 8.6 percent during first nine month of 2003-04 against the corresponding period in 2002-03. The increase in electricity demand is understandable in view of the robust industrial growth that stood at about 18 percent in 2004.
About 60 percent population has access to electricity. Total installed electricity generation capacity of country is 19,478 MW. It has increased over last year by 9.6 percent showing substantial growth.
In the total installed capacity, the public sector, including Wapda, Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC) and others, contributes around 70 percent in power generation, while the independent private power companies' (IPPs) share is about 30 percent.
The demand as well as supply projections indicate that power shortages will appear in the country from the year 2005-06. These shortages are expected to increase to 5,500 MW in 2010.
With an aim to meet such huge shortages, the Government had earlier announced the 'Policy for Power Generation Projects, 2002', which provides a clear set of incentives, along with a regulatory regime that effectively provides a roadmap to attract the much-needed investment in power generation at competitive prices. On the other hand, Pakistan is using less than 1 percent of coal in power generation which is considered as a cheaper fuel for electricity generation.
Pakistan is one of the biggest coal producing countries and ranks 8th in the world. The proven coal reserves in Sindh province are up to the tune of 184.123 billion tons; of these 175.506 billion tons are lying in Thar alone, while Sunda (Thatta) has 7.112 billion tons, followed by Lakhra 1.328 billion tons, Jhimpir 0.161 billion tons and Badin 0.016 billion tons.
For coal exploration, Thar has been divided into four zonal blocks, of which one block has been given to Chinese company and they are already working on one block for setting up of two power plants of 300 MW each.