ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The Secretary Water and Power Younas Dagha has said that the country is likely to see an end to years of load shedding by the winters this year as another 6500 MW will be added to the national grid.
While talking to media, Younas Dagha expressed satisfaction over the measures taken to increase electricity generation and improvement in transmission and distribution system and said that there will be no load shedding with the blessings of Allah Almighty in the month of October 2017.
The secretary water and power said in the first phase till March 2018, the government has ensured additional supply of 9000 MW of electricity while the projects in second phase would ensure energy security at affordable prices.
The Secretary said under the dynamic leadership and vision of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in removing bottlenecks in the power projects, the ministry of water and power has been able to achieve the target of ending load shedding much earlier.
He said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was likely to perform ground breaking of the $14.5 billion Diamer-Bhasha dam in December 2017.
The water reservoir portion would be completed at a cost of US $ 5 billion through indigenous resources and its financing plan has already been approved.
He said over 9000 MW will be added to the system by March 2018 putting an end to the load shedding.
Out of 9000 MW, 3600 MW would come to the system through three LNG based power plants, 2640 MW from coal based power plants one at Sahiwal and other at Port Qasim,700 MW from two Nuclear power Plants C3 and C4, 1410 MW from Tarbela-IV and 969 MW from Neelum-Jhelum project. It would also get 525 MW of electricity from Nandipur power project when it gets operational on gas by April 2017. Over 300 MW would be injected in the system through wind and solar plants, he added.
He mentioned the initial problems of the Neelum Jhelum project and said these were over now and the first turbine will be operational in March 2018 while the project would be fully operational by June 2018.
He said the Guddu power plant which was generating 500 MW two years back, increased its generation to 1100 MW last year and has now further increased its output to 1500 MW after rehabilitation of power units at Guddu. From April 2017, Guddu will start adding 1500 MW to the system when gas would be available.
About Nandipur power plant, Dagha said it was currently running on furnace oil and generating 425 MW of electricity after upgrading its Furnace Oil Treatment Plant (FOTP).
He said reliance in achieving the electricity generation target till March 2018 has been on non-CPEC projects as only two CPEC projects of coal based Sahiwal and Port Qasim will have their input of 2640 MW in 9000 MW generation target.
However, in the second phase there will many CPEC projects in power sector which will be completed by up to 2022.
Source: APP
