ISLAMABAD - Minister for Power Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari Wednesday announced that 1230MW RLNG based power project at Haveli Bahadur Shah had started generating power.
He made this announcement while chairing the 116th meeting of Private Power and Infrastructure Board (PPIB) held here.
The minister for power said that 1230MW project at Haveli Bahadur Shah has world’s highest plant efficiency rate of 62.5 percent and is a great achievement of current government, made possible by the relentless efforts by the Power Division, PPIB, NPPMCL and other key players. The minister expressed that China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has greatly served Pakistan in securing self-reliance in power sector while its full scale implementation would deliver fruitful results in every nook and cranny of our country.
He said, “After controlling blackouts, we have come out of crisis mode and now the prime focus remains on attaining energy security. Our end dream is to ensure affordability in arranging future capacity additions for which hydro, coal, solar and wind assets are particularly vital which are abundantly available across country and enough to provide round-the-clock power supply for a long time,” he said.
Progress of under-implementation power and transmission line projects, which include CPEC and non-CPEC projects, was reviewed by the Board, while overall situation of the country’s demand-supply also came under discussion. Managing Director PPIB Shah Jahan Mirza briefed that PPIB has so far handled the CPEC energy programme of the GoP successfully and has already delivered success stories by declaring CODs of 1320MW Sahiwal and 1320MW Port Qasim coal based power projects while majority of projects are either under construction or under financial closing stages.
In the meeting, particular focus was on Thar coal mining and power generation projects being setup in the downtrodden Tharparkar.
The Board agreed to allow extensions in financial closing dates of 1320MW Thar Coal based power project at Thar Block-I by Thar Coal Block-I Power Generation Company Limited and 700MW Azad Pattan Hydropower Project at River Jhelum on the dual boundary of district Rawalpindi, Punjab and district Sudhnoti, AJ&K. The Board also allowed provision of revolving account facility for +660 kV HVDC Matiari-Lahore HVDC Transmission Line Project as was provided for power generation projects under CPEC agreement.
The minister remarked, “In 2013, every sector of Pakistan was in bad state but power sector was worst to all. Considering the complexity of crisis and its serious ramifications, number of measures were taken to ensure availability of electricity at affordable cost to our industry, agriculture, commercial enterprises and domestic consumers. The efforts of current government for transforming miseries of nation into comfort have borne fruit and power generation projects are an example of its own with regard to their advantages for the masses.”
The meeting was attended by Minister of State for Power Ch Abid Sher Ali, Shoaib Ahmad Siddiqui, secretary Ministry of Planning, Development & Reforms, representatives of Power and Petroleum Divisions of Ministry of Energy, Ministry of Finance, WAPDA, FBR, Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan provinces and FATA and AJ&K, a private sector member, besides, executive director and directors of PPIB and other senior government officials.
