The Punjab Energy Department has not spent even a single penny on any new power generation project, despite a lapse of six months when the new department was created to meet the energy requirements of the province, Pakistan Today has learnt. The 18th amendment empowered provinces to set up own power generation units beyond a production capacity of 50 MW. The Punjab government took a special initiative and created a new Energy Department out of the already established Irrigation and Power Department and earmarked Rs 9 billion for new power generation projects in the Annual Development Plan (ADP) this year. However, the Finance Department has not released even a single penny for any project so far.
Nothing spent: A senior Finance Department official said that the Finance Department only releases cash on requests from departments concerned, while the Planning and Development (P&D) department deals with the ADP and so far “we have not received any request for any project from them so far.”
A senior P&D official concerned with the matter said they did not have the requisite manpower to compile feasibility reports in the field and the work is being done by the Energy Department. He said the amount mentioned in the ADP was block allocation and not earmarked for specific schemes.
P&D sources however revealed that no new proposal has been received from the Energy Department, while work has been underway on five hydel power projects on different canals in the province, but “the projects are funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and these are ongoing projects from previous years and not something new proposed by the Energy Department”. They said the projects would cost Rs 10 billion and generate only 24MW after completion in 2013.
Not much potential either? As per details, Punjab consumes 60% of the country’s energy, amounting to almost 9000 MW. Sources further revealed that Punjab did not have much capacity to build power generation units on its own. Sources said the focus of power projects shall be on bio-mass and bio-fuel, with small coal and hydel projects, at a total maximum generation capacity of 600MW combined.
Talking to Pakistan Today, Energy Department Additional Secretary Nadeem Mahbub said the department had done a lot of spadework and had issued letters of interest to more than 40 investors from the private sector, which has shown great interest. He said it involved a long process involving the completion of feasibility reports, negotiating tariff with NEPRA and other complexities.
“Even by international standards, six months is a very short time in terms of power generation. We have begun working on more than 40 proposals and plan to set up power generation projects producing around 3500MW for Punjab,” Mahbub added.
