close
Friday March 29, 2024

‘Addition of new capacities in power mix not to alter cost’

By our correspondents
December 02, 2015
LAHORE: Pakistan’s power mix, even after the addition of new capacities would not alter cost of production because re-gasified liquefied natural gas (RLNG) based plants would cost higher than the current oil based plants; the high tariff of wind and solar energies would also keep average costs high.
Experts point out that energy mix of Pakistan is skewed towards higher costs though it generates 60 percent of its electricity through hydro electric and gas generators. They said globally power is produced through hydel generators, coal, oil, gas, nuclear, wind, and other mixed sources. Globally, 16 percent of power production is hydel, 41 percent coal, 5.50 percent oil, 21 percent gas, 13 percent nuclear, 1.1 percent wind, and 2 percent from other sources.
Power sector expert Ghalib Atta said Pakistan produces 35.2 percent of its electricity through hydel generators, which are almost double the global average and cheapest source of power. He said hydel power generation is 11 percent in India, 13 percent in Malaysia, 22.4 percent in China, and 72 percent in Brazil.
He said Pakistan produces 0.16 percent of power through coal that is only 0.07 percent of the global average. He said coal power production is 58 percent in India, 35 percent in Malaysia, 72.95 percent in China, and 1.4 percent in Brazil. He said coal is the cheapest source of power generation after hydel power and its cost is at par with that of gas.
The advantage that Pakistan enjoyed over India and China in hydel power is nullified by high coal power generation in these two countries.
Atta said global power generation from oil is restricted to only 5.5 percent of the total power generated. He said Pakistan produces 33.06 percent of its power from oil run generators that is exactly six times higher than the global average. He said power generation from oil is restricted to one percent in India, 2 percent in Malaysia, 0.82 percent in China and 4.4 percent in Brazil.
He said up till now power generation from oil was the most expensive.
This, he added badly impacted the average power generation cost in Pakistan. Although some relief has been provided by the huge decline in crude oil rates in the world, he added.
Still electricity generation from oil is more expensive than hydropower, coal or gas. He said China and India generate nominal electricity from oil, and any increase or decrease in global oil rates does not impact the power generation cost in these two countries.
He said gas accounts for 21 percent of global power generation. He said Pakistan produces almost 26 percent power from gas compared with 12 percent by India, 45 percent by Malaysia, 0.83 percent by China and 10.6 percent by Brazil. “Power produced from gas is cheaper. However, there is shortage of natural gas in Pakistan and it has shifted its power plants to imported LNG that costs as much as the furnace oil at current prices,” he said, “but the power produced is cheaper”.
Atta said it is surprising that global nuclear power production is 13 percent of the total and is more than two times higher than the production obtained from oil. Pakistan, he added produces 3.11 percent power from nuclear source compared with 9 percent in India 1.17 percent in China and 2 percent in Brazil. Nuclear power, he added is almost as expensive as the power produced from gas.
Another power sector expert Mian Fazal said that Pakistan’s electricity tariff of US cent 12.02 is higher than the cost of US cents 8.70 charged in India. However the power cost is US cents 16 per KWh in China. He said it is interesting to note that the power tariff in United States is lower than Pakistan at US cents 11.20 per KWh. This, he added is probably due to low shale gas prices in US.
He said power consumption in Pakistan is very low at 0.04 KWh per capita that is even lower than the per capita consumption of 0.06 KWh in India, although both have almost the same per capita income.
He said per capita energy consumption in China is 0.39 KWh which has per capita income of $7,593 that is 5 times the per capita income in India and Pakistan. He said the United States, Finland and Australia are the three countries where per capita power consumption exceeds 1KWh being 1.36 KWh, 1.75 KWh and 1.13 KWh respectively.