The Pakistan Economy Watch (PEW) on Sunday lauded the government’s decision to run three inefficient thermal power plants on coal. It also lauded the Asian Development Bank which has agreed to finance the conversion project.
PEW President Dr. Murtaza Mughal said that, initially, the move would not only enhance power production of Jamshoro and Guddu thermal power plants by 700 MW but would also reduce the production cost by Rs 7 per unit.
The present government which had been blamed for aggravating the energy crisis, should plan to covert more power plants to coal to reduce reliance on furnace oil, reduce production cost and shrink oil import bill, he said. However, Dr. Mughal said that government should try its best to run the power plants on local coal to improve the energy mix of the country. He said that energy shortages usually exceeded 5,000MW which had not only made life difficult for people but had also reduced the GDP growth rate by 3-4 per cent.
The inefficiencies of power sector have emerged as a grave threat to the economy, he added. Energy sector was inflicting loss of over one billion rupees daily to the government while loses of private sector were more than that.
He said that converting power plants to coal could reduce the demand and supply gap to some extent but some bold steps would be required to overcome power shortages to ensure proper growth.
He said that instead of relying on IPPs and RPPs, the authorities needed to focus on completion of the Iran-Pakistan (IP) gas pipeline which was the only viable and cheapest option.
He added that efforts to bring gas from the Central Asian states seemed futile as pipelines would cut through the lawless Afghanistan which would make it a highly undependable energy resource.
Dr. Mughal said that the prolonged blackouts would continue to force people to stage protests and ruin public and private property unless gas from Iran was imported. Load shedding would emerge as an important issue in the election while the government would face the repercussions if it failed to contain the situation, he warned.
