LAHORE – Water and Power Federal Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf inaugurated the 201MW Reshma Power Plant in Raiwind on Saturday. The plant is currently contributing 40MW as test generation to the national grid.
Addressing the inaugural ceremony, he said that energy was the greatest challenge to the present democratic government that was inherited by the previous regime. The failure of the past government was manifested from the fact that it did not add even a single mega watt to the national grid, thus widening power supply and demand gap in the country, he added.
He said that Pakistan had to surmount this difficulty by giving a road-map to pull the country out of energy crises. He further said that present government undertook various mega hydel power projects including Neelum-Jehlum Power Station, Diamir-Bhasha Dam, Dasoo Dam, Bunji Dam and hydel project at Kohala.
Since the hydel power projects require eight to nine years for completion, he said, the government had initiated a number of projects of alternate energy resources to narrow down the electricity demand to keep industrial wheel moving.
He said the PPP-led coalition government had also put the non-functional or dysfunctional Independent Power Producers (IPPs) on fast track and had added 1800MW to the main power system through these initiatives. Our government took initiative to get optimum benefit from the treasure of Thar Coal and several companies were working on this vital project, he added.
Talking to the journalists, he said that though Rental Power Plants (RPPs) were expensive sources of energy than IPPs and hydel power generation, they were better than the non-availability of energy that would ultimately hamper country’s industry and other important sectors.
Answering a question, he said that various power projects were delayed from their commissioning date (CoD) due to terrorism and poor law and order situation while the projects initiated in year 2002-03 and had to complete in 2007, could not be commissioned even today.
