ISLAMABAD: Secretary Ministry Water and Power Muhammad Younus Dagha claimed Thursday the government was taking concrete measures to end power loadshedding by 2018, across the country.
"Bringing power loadshedding to zero level is not a dream now, given so many power projects in line on the government's part, it will become a reality by 2018," the secretary observed while speaking as chief guest at energy conference held here by a group of Energy magazine.
The official said a multi-pronged strategy was being pursued to overcome the country's growing energy needs which would help jack up power generation upto around 20,000 MW in 2018 and around 53000 MW in 2022, the secretary projected.
Similarly, he added Alternative Energy Development Board had been established, which was also making several initiatives to add more power through renewable energy means.
He said 25 schemes were in line to harness wind and solar for power generation, adding around 1700 MW through wind projects and 1000 MW would be available through solar energy-oriented projects by 2018.
He said the government was also pursuing plans to save energy through conservation and austerity measures and provincial governments were being consulted in this regard. He added energy conservative body was being revived to discourage wastage of energy and fine for not using efficient power devices. He said the body would recommend energy efficient appliances, which would help a great deal to save energy.
He said transmission infrastructure had been revamped and in past the system could not carry more than 15500 MW and now the system was gradually sustaining as more power was being added to the system, he added.
He said confidence of private sector had been restored and circular debt had been capped at minimum level while in past the intra-corporate debts would add up to Rs 15 billion each month.
He said recovery measures had been launched yielding results and in 2015 Rs 51 billion were recovered, speaking highly volumes about sincerity of the government on this front.
He said line losses had been restricted and dues had been cleared to power generation companies.
Speaking on the occasion, Shah Jehan Mirza, Managing Director Private Power Infrastructure Board (PPIB) said the board served as one window facilitator to promote private sector participation in the power sector of the country.
He said the Board facilitated investors in establishing private power projects and added investment friendly power policy had been introduced which offered a number of incentives for private sectors. Among others, he said, the policy document featured an attractive return on equity in tariff, which had encouraged investment in the power sector. Recently, he added, the board recently approved two private sector power projects based on Thar Coal. Hub Power Company Limited would build 330 MW Power Project at Block-II of Thar, Sindh while another 330 MW power project would be completed at the same block of Thar by Thal Power (Private) Limited.
He said the PPIB would also invite proposals for development hydro projects, which add more power to the system.
However, he underlined the need for taking effective measures to overcome certain challenges including making generation mix more sustainable for consumers, evolving medium to long-term integrated planning, expansion and upgradation transmission system and improvement in recovery from consumers to overcome supply and demand gap which had swollen upto 6000MW with annual growth of six to seven percent.
German ambassador to Pakistan Ina Lepel said Pakistan was needed to take lessons from her country which had successfully overcome energy issues.
She was of the view that Pakistan was needed to exploit renewable energy resources for bridging supply and demand gap, which had witnessed rise over the years.
CEO K-Electric Tayyab Tareen and Muhammad Naeem Qureshi, Managing Editor-Monthly Energy Update Magazine also spoke on the occasion calling for effective measures to overcome the energy crisis.
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