Karachi power demand grows 5.2 percent per year

KARACHI: Power demand in the city has grown at 5.2 percent on an average per year in the last seven years as opposed to 2.4 percent in the country, underscoring need of further investment in generation and distribution infrastructure, K-Electric official said on Thursday.

Aamir Ghaziani, chief financial officer of KE said the growth bodes well for the future growth potential for KE, “underpinned by its aggressive and strategic investment plan for the next four years”.

“K-Electric is committed towards Karachi and its growth with an investment of $3 billion over the next four years across the value chain,” Ghaziani said, addressing a briefing session at the Pakistan Stock Exchange.

K-Electric Chief Executive Officer Moonis Alvi and other members of the KE leadership team were also present at the session. The participants were informed about the company’s financial performance and continued operational improvements, including growth in sent-out, significant reduction in transmission and distribution losses and sustained improvement in recovery levels.

“These improvements were underpinned by investments of more than $2.4 billion from FY2009 to FY 2019 in all business verticals, including investments of over $960 million in the

last three years alone,” Ghaziani said.

The company planned to invest Rs30 billion in distribution and transmission by 2020 as electricity demand is expected to increase by average five percent per annum till 2023. KE unveiled plans to install 15,000 new PMTs. K-Electric is to invest Rs50 billion in distribution and transmission infrastructure in next three years.

The chief financial officer said investments in infrastructure across the value chain is crucial to maintain this growth momentum.

KE is developing 900 megawatts of re-gasified liquefied natural gas-based plant (Bin Qasim Power Station-III), a 700 MW coal-based independent power producer project, and transmission and distribution related projects.

Ghaziani further said the company’s proposed investment of more than $450 million in TP-1000 project is on course for successful completion. On 1,000 megavolt amperes of transmission capacity through seven grid stations and associated power lines and systems, he said four grids and 22 power transformers have already been energised under TP-1000 project.

“This will be followed by few other transmission projects, which will further improve network reliability and enhance KE’s transmission capacity,” he added.

The power utility’s planned to enhance distribution capacity through the addition of 300 feeders and more than 5,000 transformers were also discussed at the session. The planned investments in the reliability of KE’s network and loss reduction through the conversion of 15,000 PMTs to aerial bundled cable by 2023 also came under the discussion.