Chief Executive Officer, Sindh Engro Mining, Khalid Mansoor has said that country is facing shortage of 4,500MW which is causing a loss of 3 billion dollars. He said this while addressing the inauguration ceremony of the two-day international seminar on Energy Solution's from Coal and Bio Mass organised by University of Engineering And Technology (UET), Lahore.
He said on Friday that demand of electricity in the country is 19,000 MW at the moment and in 2020 it would swell to 40,000 MW. He stressed the need of adopting alternative energy sources such as coal and bio mass for producing electricity and bridging the gap of demand and supply of electricity in the country.
He said that Engro Chemicals is investing 3 billion dollars to develop Thar Coal reserves which are the 7th largest in the world and are 42 times greater than the gas reserves found in Pakistan. He said that this project would be completed till 2016.
He talked about energy crises and strategic choices available to Pakistan. He said to sustain economic growth, Pakistan needs to develop its indigenous energy resources rapidly. To overcome the current energy crisis, he said, Pakistan has no other alternative except importing expensive fuels such as RFO, increasing country's vulnerability to high oil prices in future.
About Thar coal reserves he said that investment would provide benefits including strategic energy resource that would guarantee energy security to Pakistan far many decades. He also said that Thar mining would act as a direct foreign exchange earning sector and help lower the adverse impact of imported fuel on Pakistan's Trade Balance. He said that tariff of coal power plants is lower than other means of power production.
He said that presently Thar District ranks lowest on all socio-economic development indicators in Sindh. He also said that development of indigenous coal mining industry would lead to skilled job creation and transfer of technology and this industry has potential for future downstream industries in petro-chemical and fertiliser products.
Speaking on the occasion vice-chancellor UET Lieutenant General (Retd) M. Akram Khan in his address talked on the various initiatives taken by energy technologies development centre of UET. He also announced the establishment of energy technology park at City Campus of UET (KSK) and urged to start research on in-situ coal gasification and high-pressure transport gasifier. He also announced that soon another workshop would be arranged to dessiminate the knowledge on other alternate energy solutions on which work is in progress.
At the end delegates visited the gasification laboratory at ETDC centre of UET. It is important to note that all laboratory facilities have been developed from indigenous resources. The funds made available by Higher Education Commission, Pakistan and University of Engineering & Technology, Lahore.
Chairman Chemical Engineering Department Dr Shahid Naveed highlights the research initiative and achievements of gasification laboratory in the energy technology development centre. He told that gasification laboratory at UET has established international partnership with universities in UK and Germany and more over two technology development and research projects were won from HEC of worth Rs 5 million by the department. He said that a multistage compressor and gas burner unit worth Rs 4 million has been received for research work from Holland while other laboratory facilities are in place for experimental work conducted for coal and biomass gasification.