Cabinet decides to establish indigenous fuel power plants

Cabinet decides to establish indigenous fuel power plants

Web Desk
July 4, 2022

Cabinet decides to establish indigenous fuel power plants

Minister for Power Khurram Dastgir said that Karot hydropower project of 720 megawatts under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has now been made operational.
He said the cabinet was informed that the projects of 4,623 megawatts initiated by the PML-N back in 2013-18 will become operational by next year.
He said a total of 7,000 megawatts of electricity will come to the system.

ISLAMABAD: Federal Cabinet at its meeting chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in Islamabad on Monday decided to install only indigenous fuel power plants in future to meet the growing electricity requirements of the country.

The meeting was given a detailed briefing on the current load-shedding in the country.

Later, briefing the media persons, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb said the existing electricity generation capacity was 23,900 megawatts whilst the demand reached the historic level of 30,000 megawatts last month.

She regretted the ongoing power projects were delayed by the Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (PTI) government.

Minister for Power Khurram Dastgir said that Karot hydropower project of 720 megawatts under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) had been made operational.

He said the cabinet was informed that the projects of 4,623 megawatts initiated by the PML-N back in 2013-18 would become operational by next year. He said a total of 7,000 megawatts of electricity would come to the system including from the projects as well as solar power and private net metering by next year which would help address the issue of load-shedding.

Referring to the increased inflow of water into Tarbela, he was confident that the electricity production from this source will reach to the maximum of 3500 megawatts in the next few days whilst generation of 1100 megawatts from K-2 nuclear plant will also start in the same period which will help reduce load shedding to a great extent and help provide relief to the people during Eidul Azha.

The minister for power said, “The government is also considering a comprehensive policy on solar energy. The focus will be on large scale plants as well as supporting the small consumers to install small plants. The government buildings will also be converted to solar.”

Adviser on Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan Qamar Zaman Kaira said the Prime Minister has directed to minimise the power outages to three hours.

He said the PTI government delayed projects of about 4,000 megawatts which had to be completed by 2020 or 2021. He said the country would not have been faced with the current situation, if the projects were timely completed.

Minister for Board of Investment Chaudhry Salik Hussain said the present government was serious to address the problems faced by the people including that of the power outages.

To a question, Khurram Dastgir said that as per directions of the prime minister the government was putting its efforts to improve the management of DISCOs. He said for the purpose use of modern technology was indispensable. He said a plan would be framed for installing smart meters for automatic bill generation from January next year.

The minister said under the vision the PM to support the poor segment of the society, the government had decided not to apply any increase in prices of electricity to the consumers who use less than one hundred units.

He said a reform package will be announced soon to replace free electricity of WAPDA employees to incentivize salary.

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