Balochistan plans to sign power deal with Iran

[Edevelop]

Authorities in Pakistan’s southwestern province of Balochistan are planning a deal to import electricity from the neighboring Iran to overcome severe energy crisis which has affected agriculture in the province.


In a meeting with Pakistani Minister of Water and Power Khawaja Muhammad Asif in Islamabad on Tuesday, Chief Minister of Balochistan Abdul Malik Baloch highlighted the need for the import of 1,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity from Iran to meet part of the 1,600-MW energy demand in Pakistan’s largest province.

He further noted that Balochistan only receives 700 MW of electricity from Pakistan’s national electricity grid.

Pakistan is battling chronic electricity shortage, which is inflaming public anger and stifling industrial output, as power outages can last eight to 10 hours a day in cities, with much more frequent cuts in rural areas.

“Pakistan is an energy-starved country facing severe power cuts that are badly hampering industrial output,” Pakistani Commerce Ministry spokesman, Mohammad Ashraf, said, adding, “Connecting far-flung areas to Pakistan’s grid is a costly affair.”


Electricity imports from Iran reportedly cost Pakistan around USD 3 million a month. Electricity is supplied to towns near the Iranian border, including Gwadar port.

Pakistan now owes Iran USD 53 million for the electricity imports but its cash-strapped government and private power companies have no means to pay, as the companies’ infrastructures are outdated and the utilities are inefficient.

Pakistan’s electricity is generated, transmitted, distributed, and sold by two vertically integrated public sector utilities - Water and Power Development Authority, responsible for all of Pakistan except Karachi, and the Karachi Electric Supply Corp - along with roughly 20 independent power producers. None have developed substantive solutions to the country’s ongoing power crisis.

PressTV - Pakistan?s Balochistan plans to sign power deal with Iran

 

[Matrixx]

good luck............

 

[Fracker]

Somebody said they already getting it? What is truth?

BLA is spreading discrimination among Baluchis by saying, Iran is giving electricity to Baluchistan, but cities like gwadar, makran are not benifiting out of this since it's first going to Pashton Majority areas and there only limited power is distributed among other baluch population areas.

 

[yesboss]

Buying electricity from iran would be a better deal than india and also the iran-pak gaas deal could help generate electricity. The IPP's running on oil could be transferred to gas or maybe coal (which is converted to gas too), this would reduce the cost per unit and help solve the circular debt problem permanently.

 

[arushbhai]

I hope it is done on bartering system. We give them our PTI trolls and they give us electricity. 1 million PTI trolls = 0.0000000001 kw of electricity. But we have no problem. We'd rather give 1 million trolls to get 0.0000000001 kw of electricity. Its still worth it.