Electric Power In Pakistan

[muse]

Where has all the power gone?
Naeem Tahir



There was some load shedding in 2007-08, but suddenly, after the new government took over, an acute shortage was discovered. Since then we have returned to a ‘dark’ age. It may be suggested that ex-president General Pervez Musharraf is responsible for it. The installed capacity in Pakistan is 19,855 MW, our current need is about 14,500 MW and even this is not being met. The shortage is 5,000 MW. What is the matter? We need to do a careful analysis.

Details of the installed capacity first. Electricity produced in Pakistan is from three main sources: 1) hydel, 2) thermal (gas/steam/furnace oil), and 3) nuclear. There are four major power producers in the country, which include the Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA), Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC), independent power producers (IPPs) and Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC). Below is the break-up of the installed capacity of each of these power producers (as of June 2008).

1) WAPDA:

a) Hydel power capacity: Tarbela 3,478 MW, Mangla 1,000 MW, Ghazi-Barotha 1,450 MW, Warsak 243 MW, Chashma 184 MW, Dargai 20 MW, Rasul 22 MW, Shadi-Waal 18 MW, NandiPur 14 MW, Kurram Garhi 4 MW, Renala 1 MW, Chitral 1 MW, Jagran (AK) 30 MW. Net hydel production by WAPDA comes to 6,461 MW. Hydel electricity generated by WAPDA varies between two extremities, i.e. between minimum of 2,414 MW and maximum of 6,761 MW, depending upon the river flows through the whole year.

b) Thermal power capacity: Gas Turbine Power Station Shadra 59 MW, Steam Power Station Faisalabad 132 MW, Gas Turbine Power Station Faisalabad 244 MW, Gas Power Station Multan 195 MW, Thermal Power Station Muzaffargarh 1,350 MW, Thermal Power Station Guddu 1,655 MW, Gas Turbine Power Station Kotri 174 MW, Thermal Power Station Jamshoro 850 MW, Thermal Power Station Larkana 150 MW, Thermal Power Station Quetta 35 MW, Gas Turbine Power Station Panjgur 39 MW, Thermal Power Station Pasni 17 MW. The net installed thermal capacity of WAPDA comes to about 4,811 MW.

WAPDA’s combined hydel and thermal capacity is 11,272 MW.

2) KESC thermal power capacity: Thermal Power Station Korangi 316 MW, Gas Turbine Power Station Korangi 80 MW, Gas Turbine Power Station SITE 100 MW, Thermal Power Station Bin Qasim 1260 MW. KESC’s total installed capacity: 1,756 MW.

3) IPPs thermal power capacity: Hub Power Project 1,292 MW, AES Lalpir Ltd Mahmood Kot Muzaffargarh 362 MW, AES Pak Gen Mahmood Kot Muzaffargarh 365 MW, Altern Energy Ltd Attock 29 MW, Fauji KabirWala Power Company Khanewal 157 MW, Gul Ahmad Energy Ltd Korangi 136 MW, Habibullah Coastal Power Ltd 140 MW, Japan Power Generation Lahore 120 MW, Kohinoor Energy Ltd Lahore 131 MW, Liberty Power Limited Ghotki 232 MW, Rousch Power Khanewal 412 MW, Saba Power Company Sheikhupura 114 MW, Southern Electric Power Company Ltd Raiwind 135 MW, Tapal Energy Limited Karachi 126 MW, Uch Power Ltd Dera Murad Jamali Nasirabad 586 MW, Attock Gen Ltd Morgah Rawalpindi165 MW, Atlas Power Sheikhupura 225 MW, Engro Energy Ltd Karachi 217 MW, Kot Addu Power Company Limited 1,638 MW. IPPs’ total installed capacity: 6,365 MW.

4) PAEC’s nuclear power capacity: KANUPP 137 MW, CHASNUPP-1 325 MW. PAEC’s total capacity: 462 MW.

The total power generation capacity of Pakistan (including all sources) is 19,855 MW and the electricity demand as of April 20, 2010 is 14,500 MW and all these producers put together are merely generating 10,000 MW.

The inconvenience caused to the domestic sector by the power shortage is immense. The loss of business and revenue is devastating. This is a crisis people have protested against repeatedly. The short cut that the government has found to get out of one crisis is to let another crisis happen — price hikes that are nerve shattering; target killings that destroy peace; food shortages raising the spectre of starvation; general economic meltdown, and so on. The democratic governments of today have used diversionary tactics fairly successfully, but they have failed in solving the people’s problems. This is a serious matter if the country is to be given decent governance. Sooner rather than later, these issues will need to be resolved and the key to many of these issues is electricity.

Looking back, one remembers the promise that the power crisis will be over by the end of 2009. The promise was false. Then we heard of solutions like rental power projects. Instead, why are the existing power plants not made to work full swing? Is it true that the Chinese government has made offers to meet the national electricity requirement at Rs 300 per month?

Ex-prime minister Shaukat Aziz must be asked why he did not add to the sources of power production, and why did the proposed dams get damned. Probably they will have some explanations. But what is the explanation for not utilising what we already have? Will somebody, some politician, some civil servant, or some technocrat, please tell us? We may be just worth a piece of paper called a ‘vote’ once in five years, but still please be magnanimous and tell us: where has all the power gone?
Naeem Tahir is a culture and media management specialist, a researcher, author, director and actor

 

[banned]

A lot of power is lost in our british era transmission system which is inefficient. Secondly we dont have a centralized gridlock system meaning excess capacity of one region cannot be transported to another region to compensate shortage leading to inefficiencies. Then is the infamous "bijli chor", people who do on register on offical consumation meters.

Such pieces of news are written by people expert in theories and nil in science.

 

[muse]

Banned


So, if I understood you correctly, you are suggesting that the author is askinbg the wrong question when he asks why out of a cpacity of 19,855 are we producing just less than 10,000? And your response is that Bijli chor and poor state of transmission lines are to balme for the crisis and not the amount of power being produced??

 

[banned]

Banned


So, if I understood you correctly, you are suggesting that the author is askinbg the wrong question when he asks why out of a cpacity of 19,855 are we producing just less than 10,000? And your response is that Bijli chor and poor state of transmission lines are to balme for the crisis and not the amount of power being produced??

Yes exactly because the power generation is not balanced with power demand due to lack of distribution systems. There are huge power stations in region X for example but they cannot cater to surging evening demand at region Y because there is no grid lock between region X and Y. So the region X power station should stay idle while region Y suffers loadshedding.

 

[Spring Onion]

why are the existing power plants not made to work full swing? Is it true that the Chinese government has made offers to meet the national electricity requirement at Rs 300 per month?

Because Zardari had made it sure that the fuel be provided to a private entity now owned by (Zardari groupie) for generating power at subsidised rates, from PSO and when even the country's defence is at risk, it is bound to provide almost free of cost fuel.

And because the government is involved in energy scams how can it make these plants work.

And because the private refineries or not producing enough fuel and because the one national org that is suppose to import all fuels for energy purposes is short of funds due to same zardari and co, so they run short of fuel. NO fuel no energy production;


And yes China offered but if we accept how will our corrupt govt officials fill their accounts

 

[muse]

due to lack of distribution systems. There are huge power stations in region X for example but they cannot cater to surging evening demand at region Y because there is no grid lock between region X and Y. So the region X power station should stay idle while region Y suffers loadshedding.

Perhaps you can post more information about this -- though I must say, I am more persuaded by Janas' post, I would like to form an informed opinion based facts you may offer.

 

[Materialistic]

1) WAPDA:

a) Hydel power capacity: Tarbela 3,478 MW, Mangla 1,000 MW, Ghazi-Barotha 1,450 MW, Warsak 243 MW, Chashma 184 MW, Dargai 20 MW, Rasul 22 MW, Shadi-Waal 18 MW, NandiPur 14 MW, Kurram Garhi 4 MW, Renala 1 MW, Chitral 1 MW, Jagran (AK) 30 MW. Net hydel production by WAPDA comes to 6,461 MW. Hydel electricity generated by WAPDA varies between two extremities, i.e. between minimum of 2,414 MW and maximum of 6,761 MW, depending upon the river flows through the whole year.

b) Thermal power capacity: Gas Turbine Power Station Shadra 59 MW, Steam Power Station Faisalabad 132 MW, Gas Turbine Power Station Faisalabad 244 MW, Gas Power Station Multan 195 MW, Thermal Power Station Muzaffargarh 1,350 MW, Thermal Power Station Guddu 1,655 MW, Gas Turbine Power Station Kotri 174 MW, Thermal Power Station Jamshoro 850 MW, Thermal Power Station Larkana 150 MW, Thermal Power Station Quetta 35 MW, Gas Turbine Power Station Panjgur 39 MW, Thermal Power Station Pasni 17 MW. The net installed thermal capacity of WAPDA comes to about 4,811 MW.

WAPDA’s combined hydel and thermal capacity is 11,272 MW.

In the combined figure 11,272 we produce roughly 7000 by Hydel means, but that system is down because of low water levels before the current flooding. So as far as I have read we are currently producing 2000-3000 only from the approx. capacity of 7000mw.

On the other hand Thermal generating stations badly suffer from 2 major problems first is circular debt among the companies involved which sums up to billions of Rs. This includes blockade of fuel supply because of huge amounts pending towards PSO and other suppliers.

And second is the lack of maintenance which has left equipments very inefficient and some plants aren't even working at all and many have been under repairs from last 2-3 years.

So all this leads us to the production of an average of 5000mw from an installed capacity of 11,272 from the two main sources of production.

IPPs also share the same fate as of Thermal generation plants and our nuclear generation doesn't contribute any major figures to the total production.

 

[Nishan_101]

\This the main reason why people are shouting at the GOP about the RPPs and saying if we have much greater capacity installed then why should we go for RPPs that produces Rs.16.55/Unit and they should make older IPPs and other power plants operational with some western and japanese firms and try to give them GAS and try to invest more into DAMs and Thar Coal and Nuclear...

 

[sparklingway]

Posted so many times, answered so many times.

Circular debt has made sure that IPPs are producing only 40-60% of their capacity.

19000MW is the maximum installed capacity i.e. when all units are operating at maximum capacity.

Line losses are approximately 24%.

We are not producing 10000Mw but as of last month we were generating around 13000MW.

Chinese giving electricity at 300 pm is downright hilarious and this was posted somewhile ago.

If you talk about these days, Kot Addu, the biggest non-hydro power plant was producing only around 300MW of its 1600MW installed due to flooding.

I would like to argue, without prejudice, that people with absolutely no knowledge about power production or the economics of circular debt should not show their illiteracy with gossip and rumor mills.

Connected to the whole issue is NEPRA's tariffs for IPPs. For a articulate, informative and factual critique on its role and how it is a big part of the problem read this:-

http://pakteahouse.wordpress.com/2010/07/17/paved-with-good-intentions/

PS : I'd rather close the thread since it has been discussed not once but dozens of times but let's see if this degenerates into moronic debate or some factual and effective discussion.

 

[Comet]

Why are we producing less than what we can? The question is about production and not line losses. 13000MW is being produced, why? Why not more?

 

[sparklingway]

Muse:-

I'm not going to go into details right now but it was known as far back as 2005 that the power deficit would explode in 2008 and the global oil market just did it for us. I can trouble people with PIDE reports, but here is a basic graph on power deficit from June 2007 from a presentation by the advisor to the Pm on Energy :-

As you can see that the calculation is that there'll be a 2500MW deficit in 2008 but it would be overcome in an year. Clearly that never happened b/c the Engro, Nishat Chunian and other ones that were planned in 2006 got delayed from the very started and construction started only in 2008 and the bids for more IPPs were lying vacant in 2008 due to investors not taking the risk and global market not conducive to investment (in addition to the fact that Q-block future predictions are always rosy and never realistic in these areas).

Here is another one that is far more realistic from 2005 by a representative of the Alternative Energy Development Board (AEDB):-

If you want to study how it exploded, what factors contributed and what economic factors are responsible for not generating at maximum possibler capacity, let alone the technical reasons let me know. I'll be busy for a day or two though.

 

[Zee-Gen]

Circular debt has made sure that IPPs are producing only 40-60% of their capacity.

If you talk about these days, Kot Addu, the biggest non-hydro power plant was producing only around 300MW of its 1600MW installed due to flooding.

I would like to argue, without prejudice, that people with absolutely no knowledge about power production or the economics of circular debt should not show their illiteracy with gossip and rumor mills

Janab, we are not getting what we suppose to get from non-hydro power plants is true because of obvious reasons, but is this not a time to get maximum from hydro power plants, i.e., 6,461 MW…..????......Taunsa barrage narrow escape from possible disaster is latest example of our govt.’s competency.

Brother, simply it’s not our job to know why we are not getting what we suppose to get....because this is for what we have elected people sitting in assemblies, the same people who claim to be servant before election, but don’t behave like a servant after election……we pay them not for “what are the reasons” why we don’t have this and that……the bottom line is when you want to do something you have millions of ways, and when you don’t want to do something you have millions of excuses…….right now we are in an epoch of “millions of excuses”, hope “millions of ways” time will come soon…..InshaAllah.

 

[Hyde]

The installed capacity in Pakistan is 19,855 MW, our current need is about 14,500 MW and even this is not being met. The shortage is 5,000 MW. What is the matter? We need to do a careful analysis.

Yaar, how many times are we going to talk about same issue? I don’t want to go into long debate and over and over again and I hope some of you can get my point from this post only. Please understand that 19,855MW is the maximum capacity. No country in the world including Japan and United States can run its plants at full pace for even a week and this 19,855MW is only possible if nothing goes wrong in the country and all resources available but trust me even USA can’t do that for herself.

Lets be precise...... your source says

Net hydel production by WAPDA comes to 6,461 MW. Hydel electricity generated by WAPDA varies between two extremities, i.e. between minimum of 2,414 MW and maximum of 6,761 MW, depending upon the river flows through the whole year.

So think about it yourself, its net generation capacity varies from 2414 - 6761MW at a given time. So just think if the water level is low...... the maximum installed capacity will drop from 19,855mw to 4347MW less meaning if the water level is low (which is not the government’s fault btw) the total installed production will drop to 15508MW~ according to your own source. Lets see some minor/usual problems we face in our plants

1) Hydel – If the water flow is less, it will generate less electricity from its maximum output and not for forget these plants are regularly shut for maintainance and cleaning purposes too

2) Thermal – Lots of technical and maintenance issues involved as most of the plants in our country are old and they require regular maintenance and spare parts to ensure non-stop electricity. Oil supply is also another problem as we are already burdened with heavy circular debts thanks to expensive oil prices back in 2007/08 when peoples were roaring over the streets for electricity deficits and forced government to continue running the power plants burning expensive oil thanks once again to our decades old policies of relying upon expensive thermal power plants rather than cheaper alternatives

3) Wind Power – Requries enough wave pressure to ensure electricity at its maximum installed capacity otherwise its also a big no-no

4) Chashama Nuclear plant – operates for around 320 days per year and is shut for remaining 45 days for maintenance

5) Loss of electricity in transmission and distribution which is around 7% in the United States (so expect a lot more in Pakistan)

6) Lack of infrastructure and grids – Electricity being generated in Sindh may not be distributed to Punjab so if at a given time Sindh’s requirements are fulfilled and they are in excess of electricity they cannot give the excess of electricity to other parts of the country.... oh well i better stop here

I hope you realize that the above article is crap and needs no attention. It is written for those who knows **** about electricity and to attain some attentions of the readers. Please remember even highly developed country's install 100mw of plant wherre only 67MW required. But in our country, due to old plants, infrastructure, distribution system it is only possible if we upgrade all this to westerners level and then ensure sufficient amount of water etc

why are the existing power plants not made to work full swing? Is it true that the Chinese government has made offers to meet the national electricity requirement at Rs 300 per month?

Not true,
We Pakistanis are good in making jokes
By the way, this news always amuses me when i read from our dear members but i am failed to see even a single reliable source confirming this

PS: China can't afford 300 rupees per month fixed price for its own peoples and you are talking about provided electricity to Pakistan

 

[sparklingway]

Janab, we are not getting what we suppose to get from non-hydro power plants is true because of obvious reasons, but is this not a time to get maximum from hydro power plants, i.e., 6,461 MW…..????......Taunsa barrage narrow escape from possible disaster is latest example of our govt.’s competency.

A flood flowing downstream cannot be possibly stopped from reaching a main barrage. Hydel as of last week was working not at the maximum but 6461 cannot be produced anymore due to the ever increasing silting in Tarbela and Mangla (even though Mangla's production is being expanded.

This is a pretty awkward reply from me but if you want to discuss hydel in detail, I can do that.

Brother, simply it’s not our job to know why we are not getting what we suppose to get....because this is for what we have elected people sitting in assemblies, the same people who claim to be servant before election, but don’t behave like a servant after election……we pay them not for “what are the reasons” why we don’t have this and that……the bottom line is when you want to do something you have millions of ways, and when you don’t want to do something you have millions of excuses…….right now we are in an epoch of “millions of excuses”, hope “millions of ways” time will come soon…..InshaAllah.

Unrelated rant.

 

[Zee-Gen]

Yes you are right it’s really an awkward reply from you especially the last two words……“unrelated rant”..........

By the way this “unrelated rant” was a reply to your

If you want to study how it exploded, what factors contributed and what economic factors are responsible for not generating at maximum possible capacity, let alone the technical reasons let me know

If you want to discuss hydel in detail, I can do that

Do you really think I care about factors/details for a thing that cost me 17-1800 Rs. for just 200-250 units and still growing plus line rent/month…..….????......I pay for what I get, I also pay indirectly to bureaucrats, PMAs, MNAs directly responsible for taking care of what I need…...now what do you think, should I also have to be worried about factors/details that why they are not doing their job……than what’s the use of our representative in assembly….....????.........it’s simply not my job to be worrying about factors/details.

Imagine when next time Raja Riaz in press conference say, “we are trying, but………” and then a journalist stand and reply “okay sir thank you very much, you have wasted too much of our time and our money including your bureaucrats, now either leave the space and let others qualified to park themselves on your place or do the job for what you elected for, for what we all pay you……”

Remember my friend the “reason” is their scapegoat……don’t trap yourself in it.

A flood flowing downstream cannot be possibly stopped from reaching a main barrage

Just watch this hope u will get what I am talking about.

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