Energy Projects...Updates

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Dam fund at Rs16.35bn, work ‘hit by floods’​

Nasir Iqbal
January 13, 2023

The Supreme Court was informed on Thursday that various factors, including recent floods and Covid-19, delayed the construction of the Mohmand and Diamer-Bhasha dams for at least nine months to a year.

In addition to the natural disasters, development funds have also not been released by the government to help ameliorate the equity injections on part of Wapda for the construction of the dams.

Headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial, a five-judge bench was told that the dam fund created in 2018 by then chief justice Saqib Nisar has increased to Rs16.35 billion — this value will increase to Rs16.98 billion in a few months when the funds deposited in the State of Bank of Pakistan’s (SBP) investment schemes get matured.

A representative of the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) — a financial agent for the utilisation of the funds — also assured the apex court from Karachi that not a single penny had ever been taken out of the amount deposited against the government securities or used to meet any expense from this head.

Subsequently, the CJP asked Auditor General of Pakistan Muhammad Ajmal Gondal to coordinate with SBP to oversee the management of the funds. He also observed that the funds would not be used for repairing the flood damage but only for the purchase of machinery necessary for dams.

The CJP reminded the auditor general that one of his representatives had told parliament that he did not have any access to information about the funds. “Now since the access is available, please do (audit) it quickly,” CJP observed.

The direction came against the backdrop of media reports that the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) intended to write a letter to the Supreme Court seeking information about the dam fund.

The Supreme Court also directed its IT department to place all the information on its website regarding the dam fund for transparency.

 

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...Under Construction Diamer Basha Dam - 4500MW ...
Construction work is being carried out on 10 different sites, which include excavation of dam abutments from the top, diversion tunnel, diversion canal, power intake, permanent access bridge and access roads.
Scheduled for completion in 2029,

 

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France will provide a €120 million soft loan for the 128-Megawatt Keyal Khuwar hydropower project.

According to an announcement by the Economic Affairs Division, Kazim Niaz, Secretary, Ministry of Economic Affairs (MoEA), and Mr. Philippe Steinmetz, Country Director, French Agency for Development (AFD), signed the agreement.

The French loan assistance will support the 128MW facility, located in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), near Pattan. This soft loan will support the Water & Power Development Authority (WAPDA) in its mandate of hydroelectricity sector development in Pakistan, the statement added

 

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Was China cheating Pakistan in bad CPEC deals? | Ex-Minister CPEC Authority Explains.​

 

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Electricity Restoration underway.
WAPDA Hydel Power Stations namely Tarbela, Mangla, Ghazi Barotha and Warsak etc have successfully been connected to the National Grid.

Together with Federal Minister for Energy (Power Division) Khurram Dastgir Khan and Federal Secretary Power Rashid Mahmood Langrial, Chairman WAPDA Eng Lt Gen Sajjad Ghani (Retd) himself monitored restoration of these Hydel Power Stations at National Power Control Centre Islamabad

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=503382585277433

 

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Mohmand Dam Project:
Construction in progress on all 11 sites;
Project likely to be completed in 2026

January 25, 2023: Chairman WAPDA Engineer Lt Gen Sajjad Ghani (Retd) was briefed during his visit to under-construction Mohmand Dam Project that the diversion system is scheduled for completion in November this year, while the project is likely to be completed in 2026.

Mohmand Dam is a multi- purpose project. On completion, it will store 1.2 MAF of water and help mitigate floods in Peshawar, Charsadda and Nowshera. Besides supplementing 160,000 acres of existing land, it will also irrigate 18,237 acres of new land in Mohmand and Charsadda.

Installed generation capacity of Mohmand Dam is 800 MW. It will contribute 2.86 billion units of low-cost and environment friendly hydel electricity per annum to the National Grid.

The project will also provide 300 million gallons water per day to Peshawar for drinking purpose. Estimated annual benefits of the Project stands at Rs. 51.6 billion. A sum of Rs. 4.5 billion has been earmarked for Confidence Building Measures (CBM) in the project area for socio-economic development of the locals.

 

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To provide 5 MW electricity to Gwadar Free Zone (North), a successful joint feasibility survey has been completed by Quetta Electric Power Supply Company (QEPSC) and China Overseas Ports Holding Company (COPHC), paving a way for the provision of power in 60 days.

 

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https://twitter.com/x/status/1620421919421124609

 

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The rotor of the 2nd unit at Suki Kinari Hydropower Project was successfully hoisted.

On the morning of 31st Jan 2023, the rotor of Unit#2 was successfully hoisted, achieving another major milestone at the Project. Total weight of rotor is about 406 tons, which is the heaviest hoisting component in the electromechanical equipment of the entire unit.

 

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The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority on Friday announced approval of Indicative Generation Capacity Expansion Plan 2022-31 (IGCEP-2022) which notably says that the country will gradually stop using furnace oil RLNG and imported coal for electricity generation by 2031.

Furnace oil is expected to be phased out by 2031. Similarly, electricity generation from RLNG and Imported coal will drop to 2% and 8%, respectively, in 2031.

At the same time, there will be a substantial increase in the electricity generated by hydel, wind and solar PV

 

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Reliability Run Test for 2x660 MW, Thar Coal Block-1 Power Plant
by Shanghai Electric completed successfully.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=864045874708187

 

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The National Transmission and Despatch Company Limited - NTDC has completed the construction work of the 29 km long, double-circuit transmission line from Polan to Gwadar.
Now, Pakistan’s transmission system in the region will become capable to import an additional 100 MW from Iran.

 

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Alhamdulillah 1320 MW Thar Block 1 Coal Power Plant has been completed and connected to National Grid
Commercial Operations of Thar Coal Block-1 Power Plant started at 0:00 hours of 5th February 2023. Annual production capacity of 9 billion kWh, will meet the demand of 4 million local households، economic benefit by reducing fuel import, saving foreign exchange reserves

 

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https://twitter.com/x/status/1623310223212523520

 

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Pakistan plans to quadruple domestic coal-fired power, move away from gas​

Reuters
February 14, 2023

Pakistan plans to quadruple its domestic coal-fired capacity to reduce power generation costs and will not build new gas-fired plants in the coming years, Energy Minister Khurram Dastgir Khan told Reuters on Monday, as it seeks to ease a crippling foreign-exchange crisis.

A shortage of natural gas, which accounts for over a third of the country’s power output, plunged large areas into hours of darkness last year. A surge in global prices of liquefied natural gas (LNG) after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and an onerous economic crisis had made LNG unaffordable for Pakistan.

“LNG is no longer part of the long-term plan,” Dastgir told Reuters, adding that the country plans to increase domestic coal-fired power capacity to 10 gigawatts (GW) in the medium-term, from 2.31 GW currently.

The plan to switch to coal to provide citizens reliable electricity underscores challenges in drafting effective decarbonisation strategies, at a time when some developing countries are struggling to keep lights on.

Despite power demand increasing in 2022, Pakistan’s annual LNG imports fell to the lowest levels in five years as European buyers elbowed out price-sensitive consumers.

“We have some of the world’s most efficient regasified LNG-based power plants. But we don’t have the gas to run them,” Dastgir said in an interview.

Battling a wrenching economic crisis and in dire need of funds, Pakistan is seeking to reduce the value of its fuel imports and protect itself from geopolitical shocks, he said.

The country’s foreign exchange reserves held by the central bank have fallen to $2.9 billion, barely enough to cover three weeks of imports.

“It’s this question of not just being able to generate energy cheaply, but also with domestic sources, that is very important,” Dastgir said.

The Shanghai Electric Thar plant, a 1.32 GW capacity plant that runs on domestic coal and is funded under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), started producing power last week. The CPEC is a part of Beijing’s global Belt and Road Initiative.

In addition to the coal-fired plants, Pakistan also plans to boost its solar, hydro and nuclear power fleet, Dastgir said, without elaborating.

If the proposed plants are constructed, it could also widen the gap between Pakistan’s power demand and installed power generation capacity, potentially forcing the country to idle plants.

The maximum power demand met by Pakistan during the year ended June 2022 was 28.25 GW, more than 35 per cent lower than power generation capacity of 43.77 GW.

It was not immediately clear how Pakistan will finance the proposed coal fleet, but Dastgir said setting up new plants will depend on “investor interest”, which he expects to increase when newly commissioned coal-fired plants are proved viable.

Financial institutions in China and Japan, which are among the biggest financiers of coal units in developing countries, have been backing out of funding fossil-fuel projects in recent years amid pressure from activists and Western governments.