ISLAMABAD: The Cabinet Committee on Energy (CCE) on Thursday approved the purchase of additional 100 MW of electricity from Iran and directed the Ministry of Power to make immediate arrangements and to complete the spadework expeditiously.
Chaired by Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, the CCE meeting reviewed the progress of transmission line project for Port Qasim, coal-fired power plants, Neelum-Jehlum project, hydel power projects, Tarbela-IV and Golen Gol Hydropower Project.
NTDC Managing Director informed the meeting that the work on all transmission lines has been expedited, and the transmission line to evacuate power from Port Qasim power plant will be completed ahead of the scheduled date of October 31. Similarly, he added that transmission lines for Neelum-Jehlum and Tarbela-IV will also be completed before the projects start producing electricity.
He further said that for Golen Gol project, 13MW of electricity will be made available by December 2017. Moreover, he added that in order to provide electricity to all the valleys in Chitral, two projects worth Rs5.1 billion have been prepared and PC-1s are under process in the planning division.
The prime minister directed the ministry of power to expedite transmission line projects for connecting Makran division with the national grid on a priority basis. The PM also directed the ministry of power and PESCO to expedite approval of PC-1 so that all the villages in Chitral can be provided electricity as soon as possible.
The ministry of power informed the meeting that the government of Iran was interested in providing 100MW of electricity in addition to existing arrangement for 100MW which is renewed annually. For the additional 100MW, transmission line and grid station have to be constructed to meet immediate needs of Makran division, especially Gwadar Port and industrial area.
It also informed the meeting that as per the latest projections, Pakistan will have surplus power starting in the year 2017-18. This surplus power will be further augmented during the subsequent years with the addition of new capacity from the Thar coal, as well as upcoming hydel projects. Additional power will be sufficient to cater the growing demand of industry as well as domestic consumers.
