3,600 MW Electricity To Be Added To National Grid By Next Year

ISLAMABAD,(UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 16th Augst,2016) : Upto 3,600 MW electricity to be produced through Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) under China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), 1,320MW each at the Port Qasim and Sahiwal power plants, would be added to the national grid by the next year.

While 600MW Chashma Nuclear Plant, 1,320MW each of the Hubco and Jamshoro power projects, and 2,000MW Thar project would be completed by 2018-19, according to official sources in the Ministry of Planning, Development and Reform here on Tuesday.

The work was being done on producing 800MW wind and 900MW solar energy. "At present, we have the biggest ever investment in the energy sector, which will help us overcome the energy crisis in the next two year," a senior official informed. The major chunk of CPEC energy projects' investment would go to Sindh province, wherein as many as $12.461 billion would be spent on development of various energy projects to overcome power shortage. In total, as many as $34.570 billion would be spent on the development of energy sector all across the country under CPEC to develop power plants, coal mines, power transmission lines, LNG and other infrastructure. This investment would result in generation of 17,045 MW electricity through development of power projects. In Sindh province, US$12.

461 billion would be spent on 12 energy projects including power generation projects having 5,630 MW electricity generation potential. After the Sindh province, Punjab is the next provinces wherein another major portion of energy investments would be utilized.

As many as US$8.450 billion would be spent on seven projects, including power projects that would produce 5,785 MW electricity. In Balochistan province, as many as four energy projects would be completed with the cost of $7.460 billion to develop energy infrastructure including the power projects having generation potential of 2,940 MW electricity. Similarly, US$1,802 would be spent in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for generation of 870 MW electricity while under the CPEC $4.397 billion would be spent for generation of 1,820 MW electricity through two projects in Azad Jammu and Kashmir. It is pertinent to mention here that CPEC is a long-term broad framework with multiple sectoral projects, which will be completed in different phases through bilateral agreements agreed upon by both sides as a win-win equation. Moreover, in order to utilize the energy that was being included in the national grid, the government had also plan to upgrade the transmission and distribution system and this project would cost around US$6 billion.