Nawaz approves PML-N’s energy plan

[Cyberian]

I was hoping for bullet points of how "Sharif" saab would take on Load Shedding. But the only "news" was he chaired a meeting on the Energy Crisis.



The "Sharif" Saabs have been saying that since Zardari became President. We will end Load shedding in Punjab in months, what happened?

It takes months to make a solar/ wind/ coal plant and that is IF the entire plant has been manufactured and already in the country. It takes years to make a dam.

So the only solution is Rental Power. And all Rental Power comes from burning Oil. So Oil powered electricity power plants? Come on yaar.

Pakistan needs leaders who are educated in Pakistan, because only then do they know what the true aliments are afflicting their country. Not these people who lived their entire lives overseas and "educated" in Oxford/ Cambridge or LSE.

No I wasn't talking about Nawaz Sharif's or Shabaz Sharif's promises, I'm thinking about the various projects that were started by the previous government that are scheduled to go live in the second half of this year.

To give you an example, by the end of this year around 900 megawatts of electricity will be added to the national grid which will be generated by various US projects in the country... and that's just the US projects. Plus, there are many other projects that are scheduled to see fruition in the second half of this year.

No matter how badly Pakistan was governed by the previous Goverment, more than 4,000 megawatts of electricity was added to the national grid in the last 5 years. Total installed capacity now stands at over 23,000 megawatts (23 gigawatts) in Pakistan.

Now, even if this doubles in the next 5 years, this is not going to be enough for Pakistan.

Take Germany for example, they have around 230 Giggawatts of installed capacity. As Pakistan is around two-and-half-times more populous than Germany, Pakistan's installed capacity needs to be at least two-and-half-times more. Lets say a minimum of 50 gigawatts or 500,000 megawatts are required for people to be finally happy.

It's a mammoth task and there are no quick solutions to this, so don't expect load shedding to disapear before 2030 regardless who's in power.

 

[Saleem]

its a great plan---speical grid station for raiwind and model town XX block......the rest of the coiuntry can toast itself....

 

[Edevelop]

PMLN Energy Policy



As per PMLN’s Manifesto launched few months earlier, the Energy Security policy is highlighted in second chapter after the economic policy.

PMLN has summarized some key problems in the current system and has proposed short, medium and long term solutions to resolve the energy crisis and they are highlighted in the 16 points below:

l) Creation of a Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources through the merger of Ministries of Water and Power and Petroleum and Natural Resources

2) Reforms of National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA):

a. Upfront / Feed-in tariffs for wind, solar, small hydel, and biomass projects.
b. Mandatory wheeling of electricity by DISCOs and the NTDC.
c. Net metering (sale guarantee) for small producers/consumers.
d. NEPRA determined tariffs to be the notified tariffs.
e. Deregulating and decentralizing the energy sector by allowing small power producers to sell power directly to consumers through the distribution systems of DlSCOs. NEPRA (or regional regulators) to allow and regulate prices.

3) Reforms of Distribution Companies (DISCOS):

a. Corporatization and privatization of DISCOs.
b. Ending of cross subsidy among DlSCOs.
c. Transmission and Distribution losses to be progressively brought under 10%.
d. Collection of electricity bills to be brought as close to 100°/o of billing as possible.
e. Introduction of prepaid billing system to improve bill collection and reducing bad debts.

4) Reforms of Generating Companies (GENCOs):

a. Corporatization and privatization of each GENCO under an independent Board.
b. Retrofitting of all equipment to ensure that thermal efficiency is raised to the original specification and where required converting all simple cycle plants to combined cycle technology. This will cost US$ 300 to USS 400 million only but increase production capacity by 600 MW, thus giving more than 3,000 GWh (or 3 billion units) of electricity at zero marginal cost. Payback period of this investment is about one year.
c. Replacement of all furnace oil boilers by coal fired boilers. This will cost around US$ 2 billion (for all GENCOs and IPPs furnace oil fired boilers) and again the payback period is less than two years. This will result in substantial reduction in the cost of energy production even if, at first, imported coal is used.

5) Permanent elimination of circular debt.

It is important to understand that what is called “circular debt” has very little circular component and much of the debt is due to system-wide losses incurred by GENCOs and DISCOs. Therefore we will take the following immediate measures:

a) Narrowly target tariff subsidies only to lifeline consumers who consume up to l00 units per month, and provide for this subsidy in the federal budget.
b) Notify electricity tariffs according to the average system wide cost.
c) Power dispatch to be strictly according to plant efficiency and generation cost.
d) Supply gas to all power plants that can run on natural gas to minimize generation on expensive fuels.
e) Convert all furnace oil-fired power plants to coal-fired boilers.
f) Reduce distribution and transmission losses and improve collection rates.

6) Rationalization of energy tariffs in line with international prices across all fuels.

7) Reforms of Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA):

a) Blanket ban on the setting up of new CNG stations until the gas crisis is resolved.
b) Priority to public transport in the use of CNG.
c) Narrowly targeted subsidy for the poor for natural gas and LPG.
d) Tariff rationalization in gas sector.

8) Aggressive wellhead pricing for Oil and Gas exploration companies in order to substantially increase production of oil and gas.

9) High priority to import gas through pipelines.

10) Expeditious setting up of coal and LNG import terminals, and coal transportation facilities.

11) Development of Thar coal fields and setting up of at least 5,000 MW of new coal fired power plants under the lPP mode in Sindh. This will both create employment in rural Sindh and help solve our energy crisis. The plants to be designed on lignite quality coal and at first to be run on imported coal and when Thar coal is available, the plants to be switched to domestic coal.

12) Developing consensus among the various stakeholders to facilitate setting up hydropower projects by the Federal and Provincial Governments. This will augment and conserve our water resources and also generate less expensive and clean electricity.

13) Developing alternative renewable energy sources, such as solar, wind, bagasse, biogas, and biomass projects, especially for off-grid and micro-grid applications.

14) Setting up national energy efficiency standards.

l5) Introducing solar-thermal water heaters for domestic and industrial use.

16) Decentralizing and creating a wholesale market for electricity.

What we envisage is to tackle circular debt and system losses on priority in order to end load shedding in minimum time and in 5 years there will be a market for wholesale trade of electricity and most importantly consumers, using the distribution network of the local DISCOs and the transmission network of the national grid will be able to buy electricity from their preferred producer. And once there is enough competition in the market, neither government guarantees nor government subsidies will be required and prices will start to go down as they have in the mobile telephone market.

These measures will not only solve our lingering energy crisis but also shift the focus of the energy sector from high cost imported fuels to indigenous energy resources and reduce the total energy import bill and add at least 3.5% to the annual GDP. At the same time investment of about US$ 20 billion to generate 10,000 MW of electricity in the next 5 years will stimulate overall growth of the economy.

 

[ziaulislam]

Excellent news only one problem we dont have enough gas and converting oil fired power plants to gas fired takes lot longer then few months plus not to mention the cost.

actually most of our oil fired plants are already capable on running on both gas and oil(musharraf era step)
about gas we already have one terminal that can import 400 mccf of LNG capable of running 2000MW
in addition local gas of about 1 billion cubic feet can easily be provided to IPPS.
with these and and our other renewable energy sources we can generate atleast 15k MW

problem lies that govt DUE TO EXTREMLY POOR RECOVERIES LESS THAN 50% cant even pay for gas now , forget about oil.
if they get 95% recoveries they can even manage to use furnance oil to some extent.

govt always claim that generation cost is 12 rs and tarrif of 9rs..what it fail to say that it producing nearly all of its power CURRENTLY from extremly cheaper sources(about 6k out 8k from hydro!). in reality its not producing electricty more than 2-3 rs but losses are so high ...
PEPCO has even today recoverable of around 400 billion to govt and private sector. these are known recoverable not line lossess or theft
so nutshell
1. getting the recoverables
2. bringing down electric theft
3. and providing gas to efficient IPPS instead of poorly efficient captive plants
4.converting immediately(takes 2years) all captives plants to coal imported.
5. allowing LNG import through existing terminal
6 finishing subsidy on domestic user of above 100 units

these feew steps can jump start the production to around 15-16k and solve 905 of the problem
but all these are political steps which govt is reluctant to take

for medium terms we need bhasha, bunji and dasu...no mention of them in PML N manefesto

 

[Edevelop]

PML-N for surgical treatment of power crisis

ISLAMABAD: The next PML-N government will undertake an immediate surgery of the power sector to check corruption and bad governance, which contributed to an estimated annual loss of Rs90 billion due to electricity theft and line losses.



An official source working on the next government’s plan to reduce loadshedding within one month, says total management revamping of the power sector would be done to check power theft and line losses.



“This plan will mean replacing corrupt and incompetent officers with honest and competent ones” the source said, adding there are reports that because of massive corruption in the power sector, the line losses (power theft) are extremely high in Pakistan.



“We have reports that even senior executives in the power sectors are appointed on the basis of ‘highest bidding’ instead of merit and performance,” the source said explaining that the next government’s would not tolerate power theft.



The source added that normally the tribal areas and Balochistan are referred to as the major reason for line losses/power theft but this is not the case, therefore, the focus of power theft would remain the Punjab, Karachi-Hyderabad and KPK.



Corruption and mismanagement have struck deep roots in the power sector as the government did not let anyone settle down even at the highest levels in the ministries of water and power and finance to focus on the issue of loadshedding, power theft and circular debt.



During the last five-year tenure of the PPP government, the water and power ministry had at least six federal secretaries but none of them was allowed to complete his tenure. These included Ismail Qureshi, Shahid Rafi, Javed Iqbal, Imtiaz Qazi, Zafar Mehmood and Sikandar Ahmad Rai.



The finance ministry, which was to focus on the issue of circular debt besides tackling other economic issues, too saw six finance secretaries in five years including Dr Waqar Masood, Farrukh Qayyum, Dr Waqar Masood (again appointed), Salman Siddiq, Dr Waqar Masood (again appointed), Wajid Rana and Abdul Khalid. Abdul Khalid was replaced by Nasir Khoso and then again by Dr Waqar Masood by the caretaker government.



This being the situation in the policy making federal secretariat, the power sector was in a real bad shape owing to which the cost of 45 percent of total electricity generated has not been recovered due to transmission and distribution losses, theft and non-recovery of bills.



According to media report, power pilferage accounts for 20-25 percent of line losses which hovers at an average of 18.9 percent, thus translating into a whopping Rs90 billion loss annually.



Interestingly, in a high level meeting of power sector in mid-2012, it was admitted that the worst-ever loadshedding in the history of Pakistan has been the consequence of corruption, bad governance and meddling in the affairs of power authorities but even then no remedial measures were taken.



Minutes of the high-level meeting, held at the Wapda House in June 2012 showed the then federal government was fully responsible for the crisis. “The entire issue is a self created issue,” a senior power executive had said. Another senior official pointed out: “Governance is the key issue. If we improve governance, the major problems would be resolved automatically. The postings/transfers are being made on political basis and without any merit.” Another senior Wapda official said, “In order to improve the system, we must apply the good governance.”



Held on June 5 at the Wapda House, the meeting, besides the then water and power minister Ahmad Mukhtar, was also attended by Shakil Durrani, chairman Wapda, Muhammad Qasim Khan, Member (Power) Wapda, Nazakat Ali Shah, Member (Finance) Wapda, Muhammad Imtiaz Tajwar, secretary Wapda, Sh.Nazeer Ahmad, managing director (CPPA), Muhammad Arshad Raza, senior general manager, Pepco, Ziaur Rehman, general manager (C&M), Pepco, Abdul Majid Alvi, chief financial officer, PEPCO, Sabir Ali Khan, director general (CPCC), and Muhammad Daud, consultant (Planning) NTDC.

PML-N for surgical treatment of power crisis - thenews.com.pk

 

[Viper0011.]

I was hoping for bullet points of how "Sharif" saab would take on Load Shedding. But the only "news" was he chaired a meeting on the Energy Crisis.



The "Sharif" Saabs have been saying that since Zardari became President. We will end Load shedding in Punjab in months, what happened?

It takes months to make a solar/ wind/ coal plant and that is IF the entire plant has been manufactured and already in the country. It takes years to make a dam.

So the only solution is Rental Power. And all Rental Power comes from burning Oil. So Oil powered electricity power plants? Come on yaar.

Pakistan needs leaders who are educated in Pakistan, because only then do they know what the true aliments are afflicting their country. Not these people who lived their entire lives overseas and "educated" in Oxford/ Cambridge or LSE.

Your post it pretty much out of touch with reality. You need to understand global trade, investments and how larger institutes work and what a stable government means for such economic power houses.

PMLN is the ONLY party who enjoys great economic and business relationships with pretty much anyone. What that means is heavy investment into Pakistan. I've read it in an economic magazine that Shariff's are already in discussions with businesses throughout the world to pour investments into Pakistan worth tens of billions within just a few months. With that, the power comes to spend the money on infrastructure, coal, oil and gas production increase for electricity. Combine that with additional projects to build dams on an emergency basic, within two years, the gap can be fixed. Now, add proper recovery of stolen electricity into it.......you should then be able to export electricity to India.
At which point, your industries will start to run optimally, people will have jobs, the economy will go upwards and national investment firms will focus on Pakistan for Biotech, IT, etc. As LONG as the political and environmental stability is there, i.e. the Taliban factor. That ONE factor is killing Pakistan's economy as people are scared to invest money into the country. All this.....DOESN'T require rental power as you were outlining. Rental power was just a scam to milk a poor country like Pakistan, that's it!

 

[Awesome]

Personally I think Kh. Asif is a nincompoop. Shahbaz offered to take up this ministry I wonder why usko Punjab main Khudday line lagaya hua hai. Noon league main agar koi capable banda hai toh woh Shahbaz hai.

 

[Saleem]

Your post it pretty much out of touch with reality. You need to understand global trade, investments and how larger institutes work and what a stable government means for such economic power houses.

PMLN is the ONLY party who enjoys great economic and business relationships with pretty much anyone. What that means is heavy investment into Pakistan. I've read it in an economic magazine that Shariff's are already in discussions with businesses throughout the world to pour investments into Pakistan worth tens of billions within just a few months. With that, the power comes to spend the money on infrastructure, coal, oil and gas production increase for electricity. Combine that with additional projects to build dams on an emergency basic, within two years, the gap can be fixed. Now, add proper recovery of stolen electricity into it.......you should then be able to export electricity to India.
At which point, your industries will start to run optimally, people will have jobs, the economy will go upwards and national investment firms will focus on Pakistan for Biotech, IT, etc. As LONG as the political and environmental stability is there, i.e. the Taliban factor. That ONE factor is killing Pakistan's economy as people are scared to invest money into the country. All this.....DOESN'T require rental power as you were outlining. Rental power was just a scam to milk a poor country like Pakistan, that's it!

the only surgery these guys need is frontal lobectomy...

 

[Rafael]

If PML-N can permanently solve this load shedding problem, I will think about giving them my vote in next elections.

 

[Argus Panoptes]

If PML-N can permanently solve this load shedding problem, I will think about giving them my vote in next elections.

Given our rates of population growth and urbanization, our power demands will rise steadily and rapidly. There needs to be long term planning over decade after decade, updated and implemented on a continuous basis, to keep load shedding under control, let alone resolve permanently.

 

[Thəorətic Muslim]

Your post it pretty much out of touch with reality. You need to understand global trade, investments and how larger institutes work and what a stable government means for such economic power houses.

PMLN is the ONLY party who enjoys great economic and business relationships with pretty much anyone. What that means is heavy investment into Pakistan. I've read it in an economic magazine that Shariff's are already in discussions with businesses throughout the world to pour investments into Pakistan worth tens of billions within just a few months. With that, the power comes to spend the money on infrastructure, coal, oil and gas production increase for electricity. Combine that with additional projects to build dams on an emergency basic, within two years, the gap can be fixed. Now, add proper recovery of stolen electricity into it.......you should then be able to export electricity to India.
At which point, your industries will start to run optimally, people will have jobs, the economy will go upwards and national investment firms will focus on Pakistan for Biotech, IT, etc. As LONG as the political and environmental stability is there, i.e. the Taliban factor. That ONE factor is killing Pakistan's economy as people are scared to invest money into the country. All this.....DOESN'T require rental power as you were outlining. Rental power was just a scam to milk a poor country like Pakistan, that's it!

The Shariff's had control of Punjab, why not use those business connections for Punjab? Even now those investments will pretty much flood into Punjab, Lahore to be exact.

 

[Edevelop]

Chinese premier pledges Pakistan energy crisis help

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has said that co-operation on power generation in Pakistan should be a priority for both countries.

In a visit to Pakistan, Mr Li said they should focus on "priority projects in connectivity, energy development and power generation" in addition to building a bilateral economic corridor.

Mr Li arrived in Pakistan for trade talks on Wednesday after leaving India.

He is due to hold meetings with politicians including Nawaz Sharif.

Following elections last week Mr Sharif is expected to form the next government.

Mr Li told Pakistani media that there was still "great potential" for Sino-Pakistan relations.

Bilateral trade last year rose above $12bn (£8m) for the first time and both sides are aiming to reach $15bn in the next two or three years.

But Pakistan's energy crisis has led to power cuts of up to 20 hours a day, bringing its economy to a near standstill.

The power shortages have sparked violent protests, crippling key industries and resulting in thousands of job losses in a country already having to deal with high unemployment, a weak economy, widespread poverty, sectarian bloodshed and a Taliban insurgency.

China has already provided Pakistan with two nuclear reactors, each with a capacity of 300 MW, at Chasma in Punjab province.

The two countries are also planning to build two more reactors with the same capacity at Chasma - a development which the US has warned could boost Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme.

BBC News - Chinese premier pledges Pakistan energy crisis help

 

[SEAL]

Given our rates of population growth and urbanization, our power demands will rise steadily and rapidly. There needs to be long term planning over decade after decade, updated and implemented on a continuous basis, to keep load shedding under control, let alone resolve permanently.

Hope for the best, its not impossible.

 

[Argus Panoptes]

Hope for the best, its not impossible.

Hope is good, but the shortfall between what power we produce and what we need has been growing consistently, which does not create confidence. Past performance in this case suggests future poor results too.

=====================
@Aeronaut @nuclearpak How can anyone improve the situation when stealing of electricity is so blatant and widespread as this:


Kundas by ArgusPanoptes007, on Flickr

 

[Viper0011.]

The Shariff's had control of Punjab, why not use those business connections for Punjab? Even now those investments will pretty much flood into Punjab, Lahore to be exact.

I think you are VERY wrong there. Here's what I don't like about people, you should be fair to everyone. Give credit to where it deserves. If you take a look around, Sharriff's had won seats from ALL of your provinces. Even I KNOW THAT!!! Some provinces may be lesser but there was a vote bank and it'll only increase.
Also, I do work with a large Pakistani infrastructure company. Even I know the amount of money and the projects that have been completed. And they are ALL over Punjab. So PLEASE do me a favor, keep your personal biases to yourself and not lie or misinform people. Doesn't your religion forbid you from doing so? Oh WAIT!! You guys don't follow the real good things about your own religion. But yet, when it comes to America.....you are quick to jump the gun that they are behind everything. Wake up guys, time to play the blame game and shifting blame due to your own biases is over. You guys should build a new Pakistan from this year on. AND the most important thing should be, honesty and trust for all. Otherwise, you can't build a society based on lie and BS.