13,161 MW Hydel Electricity To Be Added To System By 2028: Senate Body Told

13,161 MW hydel electricity to be added to system by 2028: Senate body told

The Senate Standing Committee on Power was informed on Thursday that as many as 13,161 MW hydel electricity would be added to the national grid system by 2028

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 8th Jul, 2021 ) :The Senate Standing Committee on Power was informed on Thursday that as many as 13,161 MW hydel electricity would be added to the national grid system by 2028.

The committee which met with Saifullah Abro in the chair with briefed about the agreements signed with IPPs, reasons of the continuous increase in circular debt and steps taken by the government to control it, details of unpaid electricity bills of public departments of Federal and provincial governments in SEPCO, HESCO, K-Electric and other.

Secretary Power Division Ali Raza Bhutta informed the committee that Diamer Basha, Mohmand dams and Sukki Kinari projects were being built to generate hydel electricity.

However, he said that hydel generation required huge cost besides taking long time for completion.

He said hydel power projects were more beneficial in case transmission lines had already available. Currently, as many as 9435 MW hydel capacity was available in the country, he added.

The committee was further told that initially some Independent Power Producer (IPPs) power plants with total accumulative capacity of 5,677 MW were set up in the country under 1994 power policy.

Under 2002 policy, more 15 projects with total capacity of 3,035 MW were installed. However, in 2006 new policy was announced under which small Renewable energy based power projects were established.

The Secretary said final policy aimed at focusing on public-private partnership was devised in 2015 under which large projects were set up. A total of seven projects with 8708 MW were set up mainly based on coal and RLNG.

The committee also expressed displeasure for not giving details of government and IPPs agreements and directed to provide complete details in the next meeting.

The committee also sought details of board of directors of power generation companies (GENCOs).

The officials of SEPCO informed that the recoveries of the company stood at 87 per cent.The committee was further told that PC1 of 220 KV Grid Station Lakhra worth Rs 6.4 billion has already been approved.

The committee meeting was attended by senators Fida Muhammad, Talha Mehmood, Sarwar Khan, Zeeshan Khandzada, Hidayatullah, Prince Ahmed Umer, Sana Jamali, Bahramand Tangi and other senior officials of the ministry and concerned departments.