KP, CPPA sign power purchase deal

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on Tuesday signed a power purchase agreement with the Central Power Purchase Agency (CPPA), Power Division Islamabad, to facilitate the sale and provision of the electricity on wheel charges by distributors to the local industry.

The agreement signing ceremony, held at the Chief Minister’s House, was attended by Chief Minister Mahmood Khan and advisor to the chief minister on Power and Energy Himayatullah Khan. The agreement will facilitate the provision of the power produced in the province to the local industry on wheeling charges which was one of the longstanding demands of the local industrialists. The agreement will also enable the province to receive the price for its electricity it is going to provide to the national grid. The province through Power and Energy Organisation (Pedo) is producing 160 megawatts (MW) electricity at the cost of just Rs4 per unit. It includes 81 MW produced by Malakand III, Ranolia 22MW, Daral Khwar 34 MW, Machay hydropower project 2.5 MW and 18 MW by the Pehur power project. The province is providing some of the power to the national grid at the rate of Rs4 per unit only to purchase it back for Rs18 per unit.

Ironically, the federal entities are not making any payment for the 18 MW electricity it has been receiving from the Pehur Power project since 2010 despite the fact that the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) has fixed the per unit price for the province at Rs4, Himayatullah Khan pointed out.

The Ranolia power project is also producing 22 MW power, but the CPPA was not hitherto willing to purchase the electricity produced by these projects. However, Prime Minister Imran Khan last month directed the federal and provincial organisations to facilitate Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in utilising the electricity it produces on wheeling charges so that the province could provide power to local industry on cheaper prices.

The prime minister at the request of the provincial government directed the Central Power Purchasing Agency (CPPA), National Transmission and Dispatch Company (NTDC) and Peshawar Electricity Supply Company (Pesco) to help out Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and provide facilities of transmission and supply of the power on wheeling charges to the province enabling it to utilize its electricity for its industry. The wheeling charge is a price per megawatt-hour amount that a transmission company or organisation receives for the use of its transmission system to export power to another entity.

Speaking briefly to the media on the occasion, Mahmood Khan said the province provided 71 MW produced by Ranolia, Daral Khwar, and Pehur power projects to the national grid. Those saying the province was doing nothing with its power potential have got their answer with the agreement, he said while referring to the deal signed with the CPPC.

The chief minister added that 200 MW more electricity would soon be provided to the national grid. Mahmood Khan further said from the 71 MW it is going to provide through CPPC the provincial kitty would receive Rs2 billion annually. Those making mockery of our work on the power projects would soon get the retorting answer, he added. Himayatullah Khan briefed the media on the power purchase deal. He said that agreement was signed in line with the directives of the prime minister which would facilitate the supply of power produced in the province to the national grid.