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Pakistan's Energy & Water - News and Updates

I am posting this in HOPE that someone in Pakistan atomic committee picks this up! Instead of wasting money on Fission Reactors it's time to move towards Thorium, Molten Salt Reactors (MSR)




China has developed it, its better to work with China on this


I want to say lakh lanat on mearasi hakumat for installing coal power, mofo need to be hanged for installing coal power plant with its environmental damage when the environment in Pakistan is under severe threat.
 
Govt loses to IPPs in British Court

Pakistan has suffered a setback when a court of appeal in the UK rejected its final plea, challenging the jurisdiction of the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) in a suit filed by the independent power producers (IPPs) for the recovery of dues from a government-owned national grid company.



The LCIA had ruled in favour of the nine IPPs for the recovery of approximately Rs11 billion unpaid capacity payments from the National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDCL).

The IPPs claiming recovery of dues are: the Hub Power Company (Narowal), Sapphire Electric Company, Halmore Power Generation Company, Liberty Power Tech, Atlas Power, Nishat Chunian Power, Nishat Power, Orient Power and Saif Power.

The NTDC had approached the London High Court against the international tribunal’s award regarding the payment of almost Rs11 billion to the IPPs. After conducting the proceedings for two days, the NTDC withdrew its case. However, the court did not waive the cost.



In pursuant to the order dated 25 May 2018 of the London High Court, the court, inter alia, ordered NTDC to pay £400,000 to the IPPs on account of costs by June 29, 2018,” the court order read. Later, the cost was paid by NTDC.

Subsequently, the power purchaser approached the Court of Appeal, challenging the LCIA’s jurisdiction and the international arbitrator to award in favour of the IPPs.

The Court of Appeal on October 4 held that the judge correctly decided that the seat of the arbitration was London because of final and binding determination to that effect by both — the LCIA court and arbitrator.

He also correctly decided that in those circumstances, on the basis of well-established principles set out by the Court of Appeal, it was the sole supervisory jurisdiction in relation to the arbitration in England, says the order, which is available with The Express Tribune.

The order further says that the NTDC seeks to challenge the conclusion of the judge’s order and that final and binding determination on the basis that the governing law of the relevant agreements — the law of Pakistan — makes it unlawful for Pakistani parties (which both the sides in this case are) to seek to oust the jurisdiction of the Pakistani courts.

“If there were any merit in this argument, it could and should have been advanced before the LCIA and the arbitrator which it was not.”

The order further says that the respondents (IPPs) are correct that it is not open to the applicant (NTDC) to challenge the sole seat of arbitration and thus of the supervisory jurisdiction in England.

“Contrary to the applicant (NTDC) submissions, C v D (Claimants vs Determination) is neither distinguishable nor wrongly decided. As that the case demonstrates, once the seat of arbitration is decided as London, English courts have the sole supervisory jurisdiction over the arbitration and it is irrelevant to the conclusion that the governing law of the agreement is a foreign law, there New York here Pakistan.”

It is further noted that the NTDC counsel’s contrary arguments are ‘ingenious but have no real prospect of success’.


Lastly, the order says that the challenge to the “judge’s consequential orders is also hopeless”.

A senior lawyer, while commenting on the October 4 order says that if the NTDC challenges the award in a Pakistani court now, then it shall be in contempt of court in England.

Earlier, LCIA judge Justice Phillips had restrained the NTDC from challenging the Partial Final Award in proceedings in Lahore, Pakistan, or anywhere other than England and Wales on a permanent basis.

The PTI-led government is facing major battles in world legal forums, paying billions of dollars in damages in several controversial matters, especially in the Reko Diq and Karkey.

Both the cases – the Karkey rental power plant and Riko Diq – will be concluded next year. It is learnt that the federal government is unable to evolve a fruitful strategy to deal with the cases.

“Currently, Pakistan is facing more than 40 cases of different nature at international courts. The majority of IPPs also filed cases with international arbitrators, seeking clearance of their pending dues, amounting to more than Rs1 trillion,” the legal experts said.

The country would have to pay astronomical sums because of the judgments passed by the Supreme Court led by former chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.

The legal experts are urging the courts to restrain from adjudicating matters related to financial deals wherein arbitration clauses are added to avoid consequences.
 

Water for agriculture developments. All very good initiatives. I would add the need for additional water storage hydro power dams and waste water recycling as important initiatives to focus on as well.
 
K-Electric to set up 700MW power plant

K-Electric has planned to set up a 700MW power project with the assistance of a Chinese engineering firm, calling it a milestone project in the economic cooperation between China and Pakistan.

The project, it said, would directly benefit the country’s economic hub and “meet the growing power demand of Karachi and its adjoining areas”.

In a statement issued here on Monday, K-Electric announced that it had recently signed an agreement with China Machinery Engineering Corporation (CMEC) to establish a state-of-the-art 700MW IPP-based power project at Port Qasim. The project was formally announced at the Pakistan Trade and Investment Forum held alongside the second Belt and Road Forum in Beijing, the statement said.

It said the project agreement and contracts were signed by K-Electric chief executive officer Moonis Alvi and CMEC chairman Zhang Chun in the presence of Adviser to the Prime Minister on Commerce and Industry Abdul Razak Dawood.

“I am sure that this is just one of a series of joint endeavours in the future that will translate into a win-win for shared prosperity in the region and beyond,” the statement quoted Mr Dawood as saying. “Stable electricity supply infrastructure is critical for the country’s sustainable progress, trade and industries and I urge all stakeholders to work together for its early completion to maximise the benefits to Karachi and Pakistan.”

The statement said the project was being developed under an IPP mode structure, with K-Electric as the single off-taker. KE holds equity share in this IPP, whereas CMEC is both an equity partner and EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) contractor. The power project already has an approved tariff from the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority, whereas the land for the project has been acquired in the Port Qasim area.

Sharing his thoughts after signing the agreement, the CMEC chairman described Pakistan as a land of opportunities with tremendous economic potential. “We are delighted to be a part of this landmark occasion today and are confident about the role of this power plant in addressing Karachi’s power needs and look forward to increased economic cooperation between China and Pakistan in future as well,” Mr Zhang said.

The K-Electric CEO said the current project was one more in a series of investments by KE to further strengthen the city’s power infrastructure and brought the power utility yet another step closer to the company’s long-term commitment to enabling Karachi to fulfil its economic potential.

“KE has invested more than $2.1 billion in infrastructure upgrades across the energy value chain over the last nine years and plans to invest $3bn over the next few years. We are committed to increasing power generation and upgrading Karachi’s transmission and distribution network,” Mr Alvi said.

The statement said the construction of the plant was expected to commence in the first quarter of the next fiscal year. Once the project came online, it would not only help meet the growing power demand of Karachi and its adjoining areas but also allow KE to diversify its fuel mix, it added.

https://www.dawn.com/news/1479319
 
Looks like this will this be another coal based power plant.
From an environment perspective a RLNG plant would have been better as the gas could directly be acquired from one of the 2 terminals nearby thus saving the transport charges by natural gas system.
K-Electric to set up 700MW power plant

K-Electric has planned to set up a 700MW power project with the assistance of a Chinese engineering firm, calling it a milestone project in the economic cooperation between China and Pakistan.

The project, it said, would directly benefit the country’s economic hub and “meet the growing power demand of Karachi and its adjoining areas”.

In a statement issued here on Monday, K-Electric announced that it had recently signed an agreement with China Machinery Engineering Corporation (CMEC) to establish a state-of-the-art 700MW IPP-based power project at Port Qasim. The project was formally announced at the Pakistan Trade and Investment Forum held alongside the second Belt and Road Forum in Beijing, the statement said.

It said the project agreement and contracts were signed by K-Electric chief executive officer Moonis Alvi and CMEC chairman Zhang Chun in the presence of Adviser to the Prime Minister on Commerce and Industry Abdul Razak Dawood.

“I am sure that this is just one of a series of joint endeavours in the future that will translate into a win-win for shared prosperity in the region and beyond,” the statement quoted Mr Dawood as saying. “Stable electricity supply infrastructure is critical for the country’s sustainable progress, trade and industries and I urge all stakeholders to work together for its early completion to maximise the benefits to Karachi and Pakistan.”

The statement said the project was being developed under an IPP mode structure, with K-Electric as the single off-taker. KE holds equity share in this IPP, whereas CMEC is both an equity partner and EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) contractor. The power project already has an approved tariff from the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority, whereas the land for the project has been acquired in the Port Qasim area.

Sharing his thoughts after signing the agreement, the CMEC chairman described Pakistan as a land of opportunities with tremendous economic potential. “We are delighted to be a part of this landmark occasion today and are confident about the role of this power plant in addressing Karachi’s power needs and look forward to increased economic cooperation between China and Pakistan in future as well,” Mr Zhang said.

The K-Electric CEO said the current project was one more in a series of investments by KE to further strengthen the city’s power infrastructure and brought the power utility yet another step closer to the company’s long-term commitment to enabling Karachi to fulfil its economic potential.

“KE has invested more than $2.1 billion in infrastructure upgrades across the energy value chain over the last nine years and plans to invest $3bn over the next few years. We are committed to increasing power generation and upgrading Karachi’s transmission and distribution network,” Mr Alvi said.

The statement said the construction of the plant was expected to commence in the first quarter of the next fiscal year. Once the project came online, it would not only help meet the growing power demand of Karachi and its adjoining areas but also allow KE to diversify its fuel mix, it added.

https://www.dawn.com/news/1479319
 
Pakistan solar project to electrify 10,000 houses

Islamabad: Pakistan has launched a solar energy project that aims to electrify 10,000 households across the country in the next three years, the media reported.

Addressing the launch of Hilton Pharma’s CSR initiative titled ‘Roshni Se Zindagi’ here on Saturday, President Arif Alvi said Pakistan, which had emerged as the fifth largest market for solar energy, needed to make optimum use of the safest source available in abundance in the form of sunlight, reports Dawn news.

“Pakistan is [the] sixth most populous country of the world, but unfortunately 25 per cent of our population is still deprived of basic facility of electricity,” he said.

“Since we have increasingly consumerist society, the solar panel manufacturing should start in Pakistan to provide electricity to the remotest areas. Solar energy will also reduce imminent threat of global warming.”

The solar power project will also provide electricity in two rural areas of Sindh — Baba Bhit Island and Gharo.

Appreciating the contribution of the country’s corporate sector for taking the initiative of electrification of homes in remote and least privileged areas, the president said that solar energy was the cleanest source and conscious efforts were required to address the carbon footprint.

https://gulfnews.com/world/asia/pakistan/pakistan-solar-project-to-electrify-10000-houses-1.66772680
 
@django @Signalian I am a machinist (learning for 2 years, changed from Hotel night manager to engineering ) in such a factory, I don't know why Pakistan has not that, you could produce easily the energy for one City with one of such an installation!

watch this!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLO3XWu0WTI


Hon Sir,

Having worked in a senior position in petroleum refining, lube manufacturing & large oil terminals where waste being a potential fire hazard, good housekeeping is extremely important; I was required to attend a couple of short courses on exhaust gases treatment, liquid and solid waste disposal.

For the info of the members, I am brief describing waste disposal. I am however eager to learn more and would appreciate your comments in reply to my query mentioned at the end of this post.

‘Waste’ is generally classified into two main categories that being hazardous & non- hazardous waste. Hazardous waste is itself divided into four subcategories based upon ignitability, corrosively, reactivity and toxicity & radioactivity. However hazardous waste disposal is a separate topic and for this post, we will ignore it.

Non-hazardous waste is any type of industrial/ household waste cannot be added to a sewage line. These could be the of garbage arising from the household and /or animal and industrial activities that are discarded as unwanted and useless.

Standard non-hazardous ‘Solid Waste’ disposal methods are:

Landfill: This is simple, cheap, and effective. However, it requires a lot of potential landfill sites. In crowded cities, where even the land within 100 km from the city center is expensive, finding suitable landfill sites can be a problem.

Composting: All the refuse that is biodegradable needs to be separated, composted and used as a soil conditioner. It is quite popular in most developed countries and individual householders/waste generators such as restaurant & greengrocers are asked to separate organic waste from recyclable & general waste.

Organic waste can be ploughed into the field directly but this is not very environment-friendly and hence seldom used.

Recycling: Composting & Recycling are the most environmentally friendly methods. However, these are only viable when segregation is done at source. Nearly all the paper/paper products, plastics, metals & wood can be recycled and reused. For example, in the UK all plastic extruding plants such as bottle, polythene bags manufacturers must use at least 30% of the recycled polythene.

Incineration: Open burning is not very environment-friendly. Nevertheless, it is still commonly used by farmers and many developing countries primarily because it substantially reduces the quantity of solid waste requiring disposal. Incineration also requires that the unburnable & the materials that give out toxic fumes are separated. For example, construction leftovers such as broken bricks, marble chips & debris, slag, used batteries & burnt-out fluorescent tubes would not burn.

I only attended one seminar on RDF ( Refused derived fuel) and SRF ( Solid recovered fuel) made from solid waste which included all burnable waste such paper, cardboard, plastics, old garments/textile trimmings etc. as well as organic waste.

RDF is generally made from the municipal (household/city generated waste), has a lower calorific value and normally used in the heat & power plants.

SRF is made from commercial waste and has a higher caloric value than RDF, hence can be used mixed with coal & petroleum coke in the Cement kilns as well as in the power plants.

However, because of the manual labor involved and low caloric value and more rigorous treatment of the flue gasses, Waste to Energy plants are quite expensive to build and operate.

From the internet, I have found that the new Ethiopian Reppe WTE power plant costs $118-million and would produce 185GWh power per year. This means it is only a 23.13 MW plant at 8000 working hour per year which translates into capital outlay of $5.1-million per MW capacity. Whereas the recent Thar coal power operation cost $789-milion for the mine and $1.13-billion for a 600 MW plant or $1.9-million per MW for the plant itself and $3.2-million per MW including the cost of mine. This explains why a WTE plant is not yet installed in Pakistan.

Waste to Energy is however encouraged in developed countries through heavy subsidies because it is environmentally friendly.

You are presently actively involved in the Waste to Energy conversion whereas most of my information is nearly a decade old and the technology has moved on quite a bit since. I would greatly appreciate if you could advise me on the capital requirement per MW of the ‘Name Plate’ capacity and the production cost per KWh without the gov’t subsidy of the WTE power plant that you are working in.
 
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Hon Sir,

Having worked in a senior position in petroleum refining, lube manufacturing & large oil terminals where waste being a potential fire hazard, good housekeeping is extremely important; I was required to attend a couple of short courses on exhaust gases treatment, liquid and solid waste disposal.

For the info of the members, I am brief describing waste disposal. I am however eager to learn more and would appreciate your comments in reply to my query mentioned at the end of this post.

‘Waste’ is generally classified into two main categories that being hazardous & non- hazardous waste. Hazardous waste is itself divided into four subcategories based upon ignitability, corrosively, reactivity and toxicity & radioactivity. However hazardous waste disposal is a separate topic and for this post, we will ignore it.

Non-hazardous waste is any type of industrial/ household waste cannot be added to a sewage line. These could be the of garbage arising from the household and /or animal and industrial activities that are discarded as unwanted and useless.

Standard non-hazardous ‘Solid Waste’ disposal methods are:

Landfill: This is simple, cheap, and effective. However, it requires a lot of potential landfill sites. In crowded cities, where even the land within 100 km from the city center is expensive, finding suitable landfill sites can be a problem.

Composting: All the refuse that is biodegradable needs to be separated, composted and used as a soil conditioner. It is quite popular in most developed countries and individual householders/waste generators such as restaurant & greengrocers are asked to separate organic waste from recyclable & general waste.

Organic waste can be ploughed into the field directly but this is not very environment-friendly and hence seldom used.

Recycling: Composting & Recycling are the most environmentally friendly methods. However, these are only viable when segregation is done at source. Nearly all the paper/paper products, plastics, metals & wood can be recycled and reused. For example, in the UK all plastic extruding plants such as bottle, polythene bags manufacturers must use at least 30% of the recycled polythene.

Incineration: Open burning is not very environment-friendly. Nevertheless, it is still commonly used by farmers and many developing countries primarily because it substantially reduces the quantity of solid waste requiring disposal. Incineration also requires that the unburnable & the materials that give out toxic fumes are separated. For example, construction leftovers such as broken bricks, marble chips & debris, slag, used batteries & burnt-out fluorescent tubes would not burn.

I only attended one seminar on RDF ( Refused derived fuel) and SRF ( Solid recovered fuel) made from solid waste which included all burnable waste such paper, cardboard, plastics, old garments/textile trimmings etc. as well as organic waste.

RDF is generally made from the municipal (household/city generated waste), has a lower calorific value and normally used in the heat & power plants.

SRF is made from commercial waste and has a higher caloric value than RDF, hence can be used mixed with coal & petroleum coke in the Cement kilns as well as in the power plants.

However, because of the manual labor involved and low caloric value and more rigorous treatment of the flue gasses, Waste to Energy plants are quite expensive to build and operate.

From the internet, I have found that the new Ethiopian Reppe WTE power plant costs $118-million and would produce 185GWh power per year. This means it is only a 23.13 MW plant at 8000 working hour per year which translates into capital outlay of $5.1-million per MW capacity. Whereas the recent Thar coal power operation cost $789-milion for the mine and $1.13-billion for a 600 MW plant or $1.9-million per MW for the plant itself and $3.2-million per MW including the cost of mine. This explains why a WTE plant is not yet installed in Pakistan.

Waste to Energy is however encouraged in developed countries through heavy subsidies because it is environmentally friendly.

You are presently actively involved in the Waste to Energy conversion whereas most of my information is nearly a decade old and the technology has moved on quite a bit since. I would greatly appreciate if you could advise me on the capital requirement per MW of the ‘Name Plate’ capacity and the production cost per KWh without the gov’t subsidy of the WTE power plant that you are working in.

Excellent write up!
 
Hon Inception-06

Many thanks for your personal message.

I looked up the BSR (Berlin waste management company) and the BSR WTE plant MHKW Ruhleben. This is in fact not a power plant but only a Steam Generating Incineration plant. It has 5 incinerating units which can burn up to 520 KT of municipal waste per annum generating superheated steam (850 deg C) which is sold to Reuter Power Station and used from Power generation and city heating. It is very environment-friendly with scrubbers and only emits pollutant-free flue gas.

25% of the feed comes out unburnt as 'slag'. Out this, nearly 12,000 tons of ferrous slag is sold as scrap and the rest disposed off as surface sealant and for other uses. It achieves a reduction of 170 KG CO2 equivalent of greenhouse gasses for every ton of waste burnt. A good example of efficient German Waste Management.

I could not get any data on its total capital cost or operating cost. IMHO such plants would be too expensive to afford for Pakistan for some time to come.

Thanks again for adding to this ignorant man's knowledge base.
 
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Hon Inception-06

Many thanks for your personal message.

I looked up the BSR (Berlin waste management company) and the BSR WTE plant MHKW Ruhleben. This is in fact not a power plant but only a Steam Generating Incineration plant. It has 5 incinerating units which can burn up to 520 KT of municipal waste per annum generating superheated steam (850 deg C) which is sold to Reuter Power Station and used from Power generation and city heating. It is very environment-friendly with scrubbers and only emits pollutant-free flue gas.

25% of the feed comes out unburnt as 'slag'. Out this, nearly 12,000 tons of ferrous slag is sold as scrap and the rest disposed off as surface sealant and for other uses. It achieves a reduction of 170 KG CO2 equivalent of greenhouse gasses for every ton of waste burnt. A good example of efficient German Waste Management.

I could not get any data on its total capital cost or operating cost. IMHO such plants would be too expensive to afford for Pakistan for some time to come.

Thanks again for adding to this ignorant man's knowledge base.

Capital costs info in this paper, may be of some use to you guys:

http://gwcouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Jane-Wu_thesis.pdf

Says anywhere from 250 - 350 USD capital cost (per annual ton capacity) if you get good deal on it from an active country in the sector (like china).

Operating costs seem to be around 5% (per year) of the total capital cost:

http://www.seas.columbia.edu/earth/wtert/sofos/Rodriguez_thesis.pdf
 
Diamer-Bhasha Dam: KP, GB govts at loggerhead over piece of land






ISLAMABAD: The Khyber Pakhthunkhwa (KP) and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) governments are at loggerheads over owning of eight acres of piece of land because this area will determine royalty for having location of power stations of multi-billion dollars Diamer-Basha Dam.

The power generation from Basha dam will determine share of royalty in favour of one of them--- either for KP or GB---- so it has become long outstanding issue between the two sides that remained unresolved for last several years.

There had been lingering dispute over eight acres of land between KP and GB authorities at time of partition. When this dispute erupted, both sides held Jirga (reconciliation committee) at local levels and this land was handed over to KP side but in official documents the land continued to belong to GB.

Even the post office and other government buildings are still owned by the GB government. “Within this area of 8 acres, there will be power stations constructed for Basha dam so royalty out of it will be given on the basis of land ownership either to KP or GB so it has become lingering dispute between the two sides,” said the official sources.

Federal Minister for Planning Asad Umar convened an online meeting last week to iron out differences between the two sides so that the construction work for Diamer Basha Dam could be kick-started with full swing from next fiscal year. However, the sources said that the meeting failed to achieve any consensus.

This scribe sent out message to Minister for Planning Asad Umar but did not get back his reply till filing of this report. The official sources said that there could be one solution that now this issue should again be left to the Jirga for decision as they had settled several years ago through peaceful settlement.

However, when official sources in KP government were contacted they said that KP chief minister asked for release of one man commission’s report and resolve this lingering dispute in accordance with its recommendations. The commission’s report is lying with PM office and the federal government has so far refused to make public this report.

On other side, the GB authorities are of the view that the official buildings are still belonged to them so they would not withdraw from seeking their justified rights that this land should be considered under their ownership. It’s long outstanding issue that remained unresolved during tenure of different governments in the past.

Top Planning Commission officials when contacted said that the one man commission was established for finalising land compensation for construction of Basha dam but this commission had inserted a clause that if the compensation was not finalised within stipulated timeframe then this compensation package could be re-opened. There is need to fix responsibility that why this package could not be implemented within the stipulated timeframe. The land acquisition for Basha dam had kick-started from Rs46 billion then it escalated to Rs74 billion. Again it went up to Rs86 billion and escalated to Rs101.3 billion. The government had provided Rs86 billion for acquiring of land till June 30, 2019 and it had allocated Rs4 billion for this purpose in the current fiscal year’s Public Sector Development Program (PSDP).

It is learnt that another cost escalation of land acquisition and resettlement is again on the cards as it increased up to Rs170 billion with the revision of PC-1. The cost of Diamer Basha Dam Project Acquisition of Land and Resettlement has gone up from Rs60 billion to Rs170 billion.

Originally the project for land acquisition for Bhasha dam was approved in 2008 with the cost of Rs60.051 billion, which was upward revised to 101.372 billion in 2015 and now it has been once again upward revised to Rs170,756 billion
 

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