Pakistan's Energy & Water - News and Updates

[monitor]

Islamabad Accelerates Work on Iran-Pakistan Gas Pipeline
Posted on April 18, 2011

Islamabad has intensified work on the multi-billion-dollar pipeline project which is due to bring Iran’s gas to Pakistan, Pakistani media reports said on Sunday.

Work on Iran-Pak Gas Pipeline is quickly progressing and National Engineering Services Pakistan (Nespak) signed an agreement with a German Company to place the pipeline, the reports said.


Speaking at a conference on “Challenges Faced by Industries in the country: Remedies and Future Prospects for Industrialization”, Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) Managing Director Dr Faizullah Abbasi stated that approximately 1750mn cubic feet (mcf) of gas will be brought through this pipeline.

In a major breakthrough on March 20, 2009, the Pakistani government approved Iran’s proposed pricing formula for gas supplies to the South Asian nation.

Subsequently, Tehran and Islamabad signed a final agreement to launch implementation of the project.

Tehran and Islamabad also sealed a final contract for the start of Iran’s gas exports to Pakistan through the multi-billion-dollar pipeline in spring 2014.

The last annex of the agreement for export of Iran’s gas to Pakistan was signed on June 13 by Iranian Oil Minister Massoud Mir-Kazzemi and Managing Director of Pakistan’s Inter-State Gas Company Naeem Sharafat in a meeting also attended by the Iranian oil ministry’s representative in gas talks with Pakistan Seyed Reza Kassayeezadeh.

The 2700-kilometer long pipeline was to supply gas for Pakistan and India which are suffering a lack of energy sources, but India has evaded talks. Last year Iran and Pakistan declared they would finalize the agreement bilaterally if India continued to be absent in the meetings.

According to the project proposal, the pipeline will begin from Iran’s Assalouyeh Energy Zone in the south and stretch over 1,100 km through Iran. In Pakistan, it will pass through Baluchistan and Sindh but officials now say the route may be changed if China agrees to the project.

The gas will be supplied from the South Pars field. The initial capacity of the pipeline will be 22 billion cubic meters of natural gas per annum, which is expected to be later raised to 55 billion cubic meters. It is expected to cost $7.4 billion.

Source: FARC

 

[Omar1984]

Pak’s 1st wind power project to be inaugurated in May​

ISLAMABAD: The first ever wind power project of 49.5 megawatts (MW) in Pakistan having achieved all major milestones is now all set for formal groundbreaking in May 2011 after its financial close, which is to be announced shortly. The EPC contractor for the project has already initiated construction work on site.

This is a landmark in wind sector of Pakistan achieved by the FFC Energy Limited under the facilitation of the AEDB, based on signing of Energy Purchase Agreement on 5th April 2011 between M/s FFCEL and Central Power Purchasing Agency (CPPA) and Implementation Agreement with AEDB in February 2011.

According to the AEDB, several other wind projects are in pipeline and the year 2011 would see financial close of another 4-6 projects in wind sector alone. With this landmark project, Pakistan will enter its name amongst the nations utilising wind energy for electricity generation at commercial scale. The most significant and unique feature of the Pakistan’s wind energy sector is that it would be the fastest realisation of wind energy projects by any country in the world without the involvement of state funding, subsidies or public projects. Pakistan would become the first country, where the wind power projects are being initiated directly by the private sector without public money or public projects.

Pakistan now offers an investment-friendly and lucrative wind energy market for the investors and equipment suppliers. Only a few years ago, the wind energy sector of Pakistan had no attraction to the investors and suppliers. Now more than six (06) EPC contractors are ready to provide their services in Pakistan. The financing of projects has also become available with IFC, ADB, OPIC and other commercial banks and financing institutions ready to finance wind power projects.

The ARE based projects, especially wind projects would play an important role in the future energy mix of Pakistan. With the issues with the declining natural gas reservoirs and rising prices of imported fuel oil, very less investment in conventional power project

is anticipated in near future. Moreover, the coal and hydel power project also have a long gestation period. Wind energy projects are a viable option for the near future with the benefit of indigenous resource and cheap electricity as compared to conventional fossil fuel projects. ARE projects are expected to create significant number of job opportunities and possibilities of local manufacturing. staff report

 

[monitor]

Energy and security
Posted on August 6, 2011

Arshad H Abbasi

The crisis in Pakistan’s energy sector is no longer confined to worsening the country’s grim industrial crisis and deepening its social chaos. It has now come to a point where it has begun to pose challenges to the country’s national security. The daily load-shedding of six to eight hours in the urban areas and 12-18 hours in the rural areas has led to significant vulnerabilities that are now rapidly leading to political instability. At a time when the country is fighting a war against terrorism, and with the energy shortage worsening unemployment in the failing industrial sector, riots triggered by chronic power cuts have created the perfect environment for widespread violence and civil disturbance.

Pakistan, which had a surplus of electricity in 2002, is now short of more than 5,500 MW. Its present peak demand is 18,100 MW. The annual rate of growth in electricity consumption was 3 percent in 2003. It rose to 10 percent in 2008 because of economic growth and the continuous unplanned rural electrification under local political pressures. The government’s failure to anticipate this galloping growth rate is one of the other major causes of Pakistan’s energy crisis.

But the fundamental cause is Pakistan’s increasing dependence on fossil fuels for energy generation. The country has the capacity to generate almost 17,500 MW of electricity but the system is not working to full capacity because of the spike in the cost of generation. The severe shortage of gas is coupled with the skyrocketing cost of imported furnace oil, to which thermal power plants have been forced to switch to meet the gas shortage. Pakistan, with its crippled economy already crippled, is in addition overburdened with huge bills for the import of furnace oil.

Pakistan’s daily gas requirement is 6.5 billion cubic feet (BCF), against its current supply of 4 BCF, a shortfall of 2.5 BCF. The major consumer of gas is the power sector, which consumes nearly 40 percent of the total production of gas. Among other things, this is causing the depletion of our limited gas reserves.

Because of these reasons, the cost of provision of electricity to consumers could not be fully recovered, while at the same time the tariff for consumers remained unchanged from 2002 to 2007. In early 2007 the government increased the electricity tariff the increase but could not pass the whole cost of production onto the consumers. The gap in the cost of electricity generation and government-notified tariff swelled to Rs3.39 per unit in 2010.

The gas crisis and the shift towards oil use for generation of power, coupled with the inability of the power distributions companies to pass on the cost of electricity to consumers, have turned the power sector hostage to circular debt. The dependency on fossil fuel pushed the country’s power sector into a grave dilemma which it has no means of resolving at the moment: if it power plants run on oil, they cause circular debt; if they do not, the only alternative is large-scale load-shedding.

The energy crisis had already been piling up when the government led by the Pakistan People’s Party assumed power in March 2008. The sycophant of Asif Ali Zardari who was appointed adviser to the ministry of water and power, had persuaded him and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani that rental power plants (RPPs) were a panacea for the energy crisis. In line with a party decision, the federal cabinet approved installation of 14 rental power plants for the generation of 2,700 MW. The rental power plants, which are only contributing 68 megawatts to the national grid, turned into a mega corruption scandal and the country’s energy crisis only deepened. The country has to pay a very high cost, but the gas shortage has sent the cost of electricity generation skyrocketing.

This was the Himalayan blunder committed by Zardari’s government. Hydroelectricity, the cheapest and most environment-friendly source of energy, was not considered, let alone its receiving the priority it deserved in government planning. Hydroelectricity generation were the dominant of power production, the government could have achieved the objective of consumer-end tariffs at affordable levels while also meeting the true cost of electricity production.

Whenever the question about hydroelectricity is raised, the ministry of water and power has always come up with the response that hydropower projects take a long time to build and need huge capital investment. But this is a rather weak argument in view of modern hydropower project management.

In our own neighbourhood, Indian policymakers are working towards adding 50,000 MW of clean and renewable hydropower to their energy mix and have resultantly set some significant records in this regard. Many public-sector hydropower projects – for instance, the 520 MW Omkareshwar project on the Narmada River – has been completed in four years. Small hydropower projects are taking 20 to 22 months for completion.

However, on top of the list of excellent hydropower project management is the 86 MW Malana hydroelectric power project in Himachal Pradesh. It is unique because it was constructed within 30 months against its five-year schedule, and at almost 50 per cent the original cost in the approved budget – and that too on difficult mountainous terrain at high altitude.

In Pakistan, the ministry of water and power deliberated with stakeholders for two-and-a-half years and finally brought out a power generation policy in 2002, under which run-of-rivers hydropower projects were planned for the addition of 4,325 MW of electricity, and funds and the schedules were determined accordingly. However, only two projects were completed in nine years. All these projects were delayed, and the delay resulted in the serious energy crisis in the country. Had the projects been implemented according to plan, Pakistan would have had 4,325 MW of cheap hydroelectricity.

The abnormal and deliberate delay in hydropower projects and wastage of heavy foreign exchange on RPPs is not the only crime of the ministry of water and power. In 2008, when the government was finding it difficult to lure foreign investment to overcome increasing energy shortfalls, an entrepreneur requested the ministry for permission to start the 600-MW Mahl hydropower plant which was advertised by the Board of Investment (BOI) for private-sector investment. The private entrepreneur arranged 800 million dollars for the generation and sale of electricity at just Rs4 per unit. This was sabotaged by the adviser to the ministry of water and power.

As a last resort, the investor published an appeal to the President and Prime Minister on March 27, 2010, requesting them to intervene to enable the development of the Mahl hydropower project. He has never had a reply from either. However, in April 2011, the adviser to the ministry of water and power sent another demand to the Friends of Pakistan seeking funds of $37 billion for hydropower projects, including Mahl. Development of hydropower is the only solution to the Pakistani energy crisis. The government’s failure to address the energy crisis shows that some elements in the government who have their own plans.

If Pakistan is to prosper, the country urgently needs honest, dedicated and sincere leaders, ministers and advisers who can help create an enabling competitive environment for the private sector to participate in investment in the field of power generation without fear.

Email: ahabasi@gmail.com
-The News

 

[ghazi52]

Ghazi Barotha registers Rs.226.5 billion revenues.


GBHP, located on the downstream of Tarbela Dam, was constructed at a cost of Rs. 96.957 billion. - File photo

LAHORE: The 1450-MW Ghazi Barotha Hydropower Project (GBHP) has completed eight years of its operation.

Commissioned in August 2003, GBHP contributed about 53 billion units of electricity to the National Grid, registering revenues of Rs. 226.5 billion to the national exchequer.

Had this quantum of electricity been generated through thermal resources, it would have cost Rs. 283.8 billion in foreign exchange. It is pertinent to mention that the average cost of electricity generated by GBHP during the last eight years remained Rs. 1.08 per unit, whereas Rs. 5.36 per unit from thermal resources during the same period.

According to the details, 4.706 billion units were produced during August 2003-June 2004; 6.274 billion units during the fiscal year 2004-05, 6.954 billion units in 2005-06; 6.845 billion units in 2006-07; 6.490 billion units in 2007-08; 6.410 billion units in 2008-09; 6.716 billion units in 2009-10; 7.354 billion units in 2010-11 and 1.185 billion units in July 2011-August 2011.

GBHP is located on the River Indus downstream of Tarbela Dam. Constructed with a cost of Rs. 96.957 billion, it consists of three main components; the barrage, the power channel and the power complex. The project holds the record of having the biggest concrete lined channel in the world with a length of 51.9 kilometers and design flow of up to 56,000 cusecs.

Implementation of the project came to fruition with the commissioning of Unit No. 1 and 2 in August 2003. The work on rest of the three units continued in the days to come and the last unit – Unit No. 5 u was commissioned in April 2004.

GBHP utilises the hydraulic head available between Tarbela Dam and the confluence of the Indus and Haro rivers for power generation. With an average energy output of 6.6 billion units per annum, it provides maximum electricity during the daily hours of peak demand round-the year, including the months when Mangla and Tarbela reservoirs are historically at their lowest level.
Dawn.

 

[Omar1984]

Turkish firms to help develop 3 power projects


LAHORE: Turkey will help Pakistan develop power projects and in this connection three Turkish firms have visited Pakistan. It is expected that in the first stage the Turkish experts will help prepare feasibility studies for three projects including a local coal power station, a number of small hydroelectric sites and a wind-based power project.

Punjab Board of Investment and Trade (PBIT) hosted a 10-member delegation from Turkey which arrived in Lahore to assist Pakistan develop the projects. The delegation, which comprises of experts from three prominent Turkish government organizations, namely the Turkish International Cooperation and Development Agency (TIKA), the General Directorate of State Hydraulic Works (DSI) and the Turkish Electricity Generation Co. Inc. met with PBIT high ups and representatives of Departments of Mines and Energy.

This collaboration between Pakistan and Turkey was initiated in a meeting in December 2010 between the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo?an and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif. Both the leaders, recognising the prevailing energy shortage in Pakistan had agreed to jointly work to address the problem. Subsequently, PBIT and TIKA, have been coordinating this effort in recent weeks.

Welcoming the delegation, Director General PBIT, Moazzam Husain mentioned that given the understanding between the respective political leadership on both sides, it was important that this initiative be taken to fruition. Reciprocating this sentiment, Programme Coordinator TIKA Elif Turkislamoglu noted that the Turkish side was also keen to develop successful outcomes.

In the following discussion, a raft of opportunities for development in the energy sector was reviewed with focus on utilisation of three indigenous and available energy resources coal, hydroelectric and wind power. The Turkish side offered full support in helping the Punjab government develop power generation projects using these resources. Several mining issues were also brought to light whereby coal quality, safety and precaution and ash disposal were discussed with possible solutions being worked out as well. In addition, issues in water management under the current irrigation system and canal network such as siltation and gateway management were also included so as to address these issues in a more thorough manner. The Turkish delegation also shared the best practices within their energy sector and PBIT will analyze those practices to make recommendations to the government of Punjab. staff report



Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan

 

[eshal]

i hope it would be beneficial for pakistani people

 

[muse]

I don't understand why Pakistani companies have earned so little of the development business in the Middle East - it seems they can't even earn business in Pakistan itself

 

[meng2011]

but they abondoned it due to tarrifs imposed but the project is being finalized to commence again local engineers , analyst predict 1.5-2 years time for that feasability and project to complete functioning.

 

[ghazi52]

Iranian delegates to finalise 1,100MW power project

ISLAMABAD: Additional secretary in Ministry of Water and Power, Hamid Ali khan on Tuesday said that an Iranian delegation would call on the members of the special committee on energy crisis today (Wednesday) led by Finance Minister Abdul Hafeez Sheikh to finalise the 1,100 megawatt (MW) Iran-Pakistan power import project. and finalise the terms and conditions for import of 100 MW power electricity from Iran for Gawadar and 1000 MW to curtail the demand and supply gap of power across the country.

 

[Asian.Century]

 

[russellpeters]

c'mon people i think the situation has started to become dire...

LAHORE: The power generation system virtually collapsed on Monday with all major cities and towns in Punjab suffering up to 20 hours of loadshedding, leading to violent protests across the province.

The PML-N provided an impetus to the protests when its workers, as a matter of party policy, joined the demonstrations. MNA Hamza Shahbaz, son of Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, is reported to have organised and led some rallies.

The country has been facing severe electricity crisis for two days.

With hydel generation receding further, oil squeeze worsening and two nuclear power plants stalled because of technical faults, the electricity deficit shot up by over 8,000MW — almost 50 per cent of the demand.

Although the federal government claimed that it was releasing some money to pay dues of the oil supplier, Pakistan State Oil, it did not happen till the filling of this report.

Two major power plants — Hubco and Kapco — remained offline. One nuclear plant which was due to become operational in the morning sank again because of technical faults at 10am.

The people suffering from prolonged power outages took to the streets and attacked government and private properties. A police station came under attack in Gujranwala when police baton-charged protesters in an effort to keep the situation under control.

A DSP, an SHO and a number of policemen were injured when they came to rescue staff of the Gujranwala Electric Power Company headquarters ransacked by the protesters who later blocked the Grand Trunk (GT) Road, burnt tyres and pelted two trains with stones. They also burnt a Wapda bus and smashed windowpanes of a private bank on the GT Road.

Monday’s power riots in Punjab were the worst for the reason. The crisis was treated as a law and order problem by police and rulers. All local power distributors and planners disappeared from the scene, leaving police to deal with the situation, sometime brutally.

Lahore led the protests with more than a dozen protest rallies, blocking as many roads and creating miles-long traffic jams.
The city traffic was in a mess as protesters blocked more than a dozen roads, creating vehicular pressure on other roads.

The protesters torched an office of the Lahore Electric Supply Company on Ravi Road and a garbage truck of the city government. The protests continued till late night and police were seen clashing with protesters.

The protesters also blocked the Lahore-Islamabad Motorway and Lahore Ring Road.

Most of the protesters were youths, especially students. Carrying clubs and stones, they tested police in most cities, ransacking shops, busses, traffic signals and installations.

Faisalabad was the third worst-hit district where a complete strike was observed. All markets in Clock Tower, including the Montgomery, Jhang, Bhawana, Aminpur, Chiniot, Kutchery, Rail and Kharkhana bazaars remained closed.

A few mobile phone traders in Kutchery Bazaar, however, carried out their business by pulling half shutters down. Traders set up a protest camp at the Clock Tower intersection and raised slogans against the federal government and President Asif Ali Zardari.

Protests were also reported from Sialkot, Gujrat, Okara, Mianwali, Toba Tak Singh and other towns in the province.

Source: Power riots engulf more cities, towns in Punjab | Newspaper | DAWN.COM

I hope they solve crisis soon...

 

[Jango]

News ticker going on multiple news channels that PEPCO has announced that the demand of electricity and production of electricity has been equalized, and the shortfall is no more.

Any Pakistani member living in Pakistan can expand on this? Is loadshedding still happening or not?

 

[CLIPPER4LIFE]

Six small dams to be completed this year
By APP​

Published: October 9, 2011

An official of the Ministry of Water and Power on Saturday told APP that the government has so far constructed 49 small dams and plans to build eight more in Rawalpindi, Jhelum, Attock and Chakwal to promote agriculture in these regions.
ISLAMABAD:
The construction of six small dams is expected to be completed during the current financial year (2011-12) which would help irrigate around 12,310 acres of agricultural land.
The dams include Darmalak Dam (Kohat), Lawaghar and Karak Dam (Karak), Khair Bara Dam (Haripur), Jabba Khattak Dam (Nowshera) and Palai Dam (Charsadda).
An official of the Ministry of Water and Power on Saturday told APP that the government has so far constructed 49 small dams and plans to build eight more in Rawalpindi, Jhelum, Attock and Chakwal to promote agriculture in these regions.
The official said through these (49) dams 85,356 acres of land is being irrigated now and added the feasibility study was being done on 11 more dams. Some of them will be built in 2011-12 while others in 2012-13, he added.
He said the 12 dams would be constructed in two phases in all the four provinces with storage capacity of four MAF water. In the first phase Winder and Naulong dams will be constructed in Balochistan, Kurram Tangi in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Darwat and Nai Gaj in Sindh and Ghabir Dam in Punjab.
He said these dams will not only help in irrigation but also provide clean drinking water. The provincial government has allocated Rs1 billion for Punjab Agriculture Research Board and also doubled budget for the improvement of research infrastructure.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 9th, 2011.

 

[VCheng]

from: Pakistan

Pakistan’s energy shortage
Lights out
Another threat to a fragile country’s stability

Oct 8th 2011 | ISLAMABAD | from the print edition

Altough Pakistan makes international news for terrorist attacks, anti-American demonstrations and its alleged support for insurgents in Afghanistan, it is the basic inability to switch on a light that is pushing this volatile country closer to the edge. Popular anger over Pakistan’s crippling electricity shortage boiled over on to the streets this week, with riots that paralysed whole cities, unleashing running battles with the police and causing widespread damage to government offices.

It is clear why the people were angry. In many of the towns in revolt, they have gone 20 hours a day without power in a still-sweltering Pakistan. What is more, the government of President Asif Zardari has done little as the energy crisis has grown, dithering over its strategy even as it cooks up schemes for new power plants to enrich its cronies. In the process, the government has squandered billions of dollars.

This week’s demonstrations were the most serious protests against the government since a movement in 2008 to reinstate a sacked chief justice. The opposition leader, Nawaz Sharif, whose political performance had been lacklustre at best, quickly embraced the protesters, quipping that the “Zardari network” was more dangerous to the country than the Haqqani network, an Afghan jihadist group based on Pakistani soil.

The energy deficit, in both electricity and gas, means that businesses have to shut for part of each week, forcing many to go bankrupt. Power shortages are estimated to slice some 3-4% off GDP. “The textile industry of Punjab is doomed,” says Shabbir Ahmed, chief executive of Bashir Printing, a textile dyeing and printing factory in Faisalabad, in Punjab province. His plant now shuts for two days a week for lack of gas. Even when there is gas, he says, the electricity is cut four times a day.

For ordinary people, the frustrations are endless. Refrigerators become useless. Water runs out because it relies on electrical pumps. Children do their homework by candlelight.

Insufficient capacity is not even the biggest problem. That is a $6 billion chain of debt, ultimately owed by the state, that is debilitating the entire energy sector. Power plants are owed money by the national grid and the grid in turn cannot get consumers (including the Pakistani government) to pay for the electricity they use. This week, the financial crunch meant that oil supply to the two biggest private power plants was halted, because the state-owned oil company had no cash to procure fuel.

The central government also continues to subsidise the cost of electricity to the tune of billions of dollars a year. That money, say the government’s critics, could be better used to pay its own bills and thereby free up unused capacity in power plants that are mothballed because of non-payment and disrepair. Cutting subsidies to people’s electricity bills, however, could lead to even more unrest. Critics argue that the government’s hand-to-mouth policymaking is self-defeating, and illustrates its general lack of planning.

In the long term, help could be at hand. Pakistan says it is about to start work on a giant dam, the $12 billion Daimer-Basha, in the far north-east, with backing from the Asian Development Bank. The dam would add a large amount of generating capacity. America may provide aid for the project. (India, which believes that the dam lies in disputed territory, in part of the former princely state of Kashmir, is inevitably against the dam’s construction.)

There are also plans for a gas pipeline from Iran, though the Americans have warned that the scheme could fall foul of their sanctions against Iran. Alternatives include access to Pakistan’s abundant untapped coal reserves, or importing gas and electricity from central Asia, across Afghanistan, a daunting proposition.

However, it is the short term that is the real problem. Unless the Pakistani government can solve its cycle of debt and disorganisation, ordinary Pakistanis will continue to vent their fury.

from the print edition | Asia

 

[Jango]

I have been asking my relatives lately, everyday about loadshedding, and in Islamabad and Lahore, no loadshedding, and in a village near Gujrat, maximum 3-4 hours, so it has become better. Or is it because of the change in weather?