Nawaz govt devises plan to end power outages by Dec 2017

ISLAMABAD: The Nawaz government has carved out a new plan to purge the country of the menace of loadshedding with almost 1,000MW of electricity in surplus by December 2017 — three months before the deadline of March 2018.

Chief Executive of Pakistan, who has become too vibrant after his heart surgery, has decided to enter the year 2018 -- the election year with the feather of extricating the country from the irritating power outages in his cap. This will not only leave the political opposition parties crestfallen but will also tell upon their performance in the coming elections.

The commitment the premier had made in his election campaign for general election 2013 that he will rid the country of loadshedding by March 2018, but now under the latest scenario, it has been decided by the top man of the government to further reduce the deadline by three months, meaning by that the country will be experiencing zero power outages by December 17.

To this effect, the prime minister will himself monitor the new timelines of the projects whether they are under or outside the CPEC umbrella, a senior official who was part of the crucial meeting on energy convened by the premier here on Saturday told The News.

The country’s power deficit at peak season has been worked out at 5,000MW. Under the new plan, close to 7,000MW of electricity will be injected into the system that will not only eliminate loadshedding, but would also give 1,000MW surplus electricity.

The federal secretary water and power briefed the meeting that the year 2016 remained the most stable as well as the best period for generation of power during the last 10 years. The prime minister was briefed about the timeline of different power projects to be completed between mid of 2017 and March of 2018.

Under the new timelines,  the government wants to ensure availability of 2,400MW of electricity by November 2017 from three power plants based on LNG being installed in Punjab. The said three projects have joint capacity to generate 3,600MW, but each will start producing 800MW by November 2017. Of these, Bikki will start generating electricity by May 2017 and two others, one at Haveli Badur Shah and other at Balloki, will also start injecting 1,600MW into the system by November 2017. The conversion of Guddu and Nandipur power plant to gas will help generate 400 to 500MW additional electricity in the system as currently the Nandipur power plant is generating 300 MW of electricity against its capacity of 425MW. When it is to be converted to gas, its capacity will increase to 525MW on sustainable basis. Shahid Khaqan Abbasi also ensured that both the projects on gas will join the national grid by February 2017.

However, about 680MW from two nuclear power plants at Chashma (C3 and C4) will now be available to the system by November 2016, this has been told to prime minister. The meeting was also informed that Sahiwal coal-based power plant of 1,320MW will come on stream by July end 2017.

The Port Qasim coal based plant of 650MW will come on stream by November 2017 and the second one, also of 650MW will start generating electricity by February 2018.

The Neelum-Jehlum with capacity to generate 969MW will be ensured to get fully operational by December 2017 and 1,410 MW from Tarbela-VI will also come on stream by December 2017. However the PM has decided to go himself on the site of Neelum-Jhelum hydropower project and Terbela-VI and will himself decide their deadline.