Around five wind power projects – each having a generation capacity of 50MW – will be set up soon and this way the country will have at least 250MW by the end of this year, Siemens Pakistan chief Sohail Wajahat H Siddiqui told Pakistan Today. “These are decided projects and the new adviser to the prime minister, Dr Asim Hussain has been informed that they will take two years for optimal power generation,” he added. He said these are time consuming projects, and though they can be installed immediately, they would take some time to start generating power. “The tariff would remain the same as decided between the government and the companies, however, solar and wind power projects are usually expensive due to their installation costs,” he added. He further said that wind power generation is necessary for the country despite its high cost because it will not create an import bill for the country in terms of furnace oil.
“For example, wind power plants generate only half the power compared with furnace oil-based power generation and that is why it is not usually found feasible, but its larger impact on the economy is favourable,” he pointed out. Siddiqui said that all power companies in the company are prone to shortfall due to their hydel power generation issue, and this is causing a two percent loss to the economy of the country, therefore, we should work in collaboration for the solutions of the energy crisis.
“No new power generation project is in sight except Karachi Electric Supply Company’s’ planned project of 200MW, however, we have submitted four energy plans to the government for future,” he added.
One issue is the non-implementation of the policies and we as a nation lack this capacity, he said, adding that we have to develop institutions and we have not paid attention to the energy sector for 25 years as no power generation plant has been set up after the independent power producers started providing electricity.
