Punjab Power Minister Chaudhry Armaghan Subhani has said the Punjab Power Development Board should use both hydro and thermal power sources to meet power demands in the province. He made the comments while chairing a meeting to review the progress of the Punjab Power Development Board here on Friday.
He also said PPDB should process and ensure implementation of power generation projects in liaison with the Private Power and Infrastructure Board, Power Distribution Companies and National Transmission and Dispatch Company to achieve its objectives. "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.
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 of Punjab province is about 11,500 mw. The load growth requires a proper expanded generation plan to be managed. He said. "Punjab has sufficient resources to generate about 480 mw from 315 hydel locations. This potential is in addition to other options available for thermal generation based on indigenous fuel such as oil, coal and gas."
The meeting informed the minister that out of the total generation capacity of 17,975 mw in the country, the Water and Power Development Authority and General Companies owned 9,750 mw, the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation owned 1,756 mw and rest is owned by independent power producers.