KP govt launching ambitious power projects

Province alone has potential of generating 30,000MW electricity

ISLAMABAD: The Pakhtun-khwa Energy Development Organisation (Pedo) is spearheading the power sector initiative of the province. The province has huge hydro power potential of around 30,000 Mega Watts or approximately 70 per cent of national untapped hydro power potential.

PTI’s Central Media Dapartment says Pedo is actively working on harnessing this resource for the benefit of the province and country at large. It has already identified a total of 29 hydro power projects with an investment of around US $12.0 billion, a huge amount by any standards. 

Although it is difficult to arrange these funds in a short span of time, Pedo has embarked on a multi-pronged strategy to implement these projects on fast track basis. It is developing these projects both in the public and private sectors. Work in the public sector is already underway with 8 projects totalling 270 MW at different stages of implementation whereas the private sector initiative has also been launched. 

A new investor friendly KP Hydro Power Policy 2016 and associated Guidelines have been put in place to attract investment in the sector. Recently Pedo had advertised 6 hydropower projects (solicited sites), for which feasibility studies had already been conducted by Pedo. 

The combined capacity of these projects is 518MW and needs an overall investment amount of approximately US$ 1.5 billion. These projects include 188MW Naran HPP in Mansehra, 102MW ShigoKach HPP in Lower Dir, 99MW Arkari Gol HPP in Chitral, 96MW Batakundi HPP in Mansehra, 21MW Ghorband HPP in Shangla, 12MW Nandihar HPP in Batagram.

An overwhelming response from both local and international investors has been received as 56 applicants have submitted their proposals for pre-qualification. Out of these 56 applicants, 32 have been pre-qualified and RFPs issued to them for submission of bids in accordance with the criteria provided in the RFP document. The RFP has been approved by Nepra and this is the first time in the history of Pakistan that tariff based bidding will be carried out for hydro power projects with KP leading the way and acting as pioneer.

Pedo had also advertised 150MW Sharmai HPP in Upper Dir as a semi-raw site. This project needs an investment of US dollars 0.5 billion. A total of 5 proposals were submitted by local and international investors and evaluation in final stages and expect award of this project to the private sector soon.

Apart from these 7 advertised projects Pedo is actively attracting private sector to identify and invest in hydro power raw sites in the province. These are being awarded on ‘first come first served’ basis under the new KP Hydropower Policy 2016. In the last couple of years, a large number of investors have registered raw sites and initiated work on them. 

These include micro projects (in KWs) and small/medium/large ones (MWs); currently approximately 45 small/medium/large with a total capacity of 810 MWs are being pursued as raw hydro power projects with Pedo by private sector and conducting the feasibility studies for these projects. This is a very encouraging sign and shows the confidence of the private sector in Pedo and GoKP.

The seven projects offered to private sector in total would generate 668 MW with an investment amount of $2.0 billion. A pre-bid meeting for the 6 solicited sites was held on January 6, 2016 where all pre-qualified investors participated with a full house, showing confidence in the initiative. In order to further encourage the private sector and give them confidence, a networking dinner event has been planned with investors on January 9, 2016. 

Top leadership from the province including the chiefminister & cabinet members, beaurecracy and PTI leadership with Imran Khan, Asad Umar, Jehangir Tareen, Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Naeem Ul Haque will attend the event. This clearly shows commitment on part of the provincial government and PTI leadership towards attracting private sector investment in the province and this initiative of US $2.0 billion is the biggest ever in the history of KP. 

This step and a number of others like the micro hydel programme, in collaboration with Asian Development Bank (ADB), enhancing / scaling up of the public sector power projects, restructuring of the organisation and hiring of professionals has initiated the turnaround of KP’s power sector and steering it towards success.