Punjab Minister for Power Chaudhry Armaghan Subhani has said that in order to meet the power demands in the province, Punjab Power Development Board (PPDB) should utilise both hydel and thermal power resources.
To achieve its objectives, PPDB should process and ensure implementation of power generation projects in liaison with Private Power and Infrastructure Board (PPIB), Power Distribution Companies and National Transmission and Dispatch Company, he added.
He expressed these views while presiding over a meeting held to review the progress of Punjab Power Development Board in his office. The minister said that PPDB should also liaise with other power generation agencies to ensure the inter-transfer of information and data related to load growth and of the respective plans to meet it.
He said that according to the latest load forecast, the expected projected load growth by 2025 will be 36,358 MW, which is about 330 percent of the loads in the year 2002-03 while the load forecast up to year 2010 Punjab province is about 1 1500 mw. He said that the load growth requires a proper expanded generation plan to be managed.
Chaudhry Armaghan Subhani said that Punjab has sufficient resources to generate about 480 mw from 315 hydel locations. He said that this potential is in addition to other options available for thermal generation based on indigenous fuel such as oil, coal and gas etc. The minister was informed that out of the total generation capacity of about 17,975 mw in the country, 9750 mw is owned by WAPDA hydel and General Companies (GENCO), 1 756 mw by Karachi Electric Supply Corporation and rest is owned by Independent Power Producers.