The government has announced to shut down expensive fuel-fired power plants generating 7,339 megawatts.
According to the news reporters, a ten-year plan for a cheaper alternative framed by the National Transmission and Dispatch Company (NTDC) has been forwarded to the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) for approval.
The agency seeks the closure of eleven furnace oil power plants and five others running on imported liquefied natural gas (LNG). Additionally, the agency has also ordered to shut down three plants fueled by imported gas and K-Electric plants based on expensive inventories.
After confirming the development from NTDC, a statement from Nepra was issued which said that the Indicative Generation Capacity Expansion Plan (IGCEP) has been proposed for the period of 2022-31.
In line with the statement, the NTDC plan looks for adding 14,159 megawatts of cheap electricity to the system. The project has also planned to increase the electricity demand to 44,668 megawatts during the said period.
NEPRA, in this regard, will hold a hearing on the long-term plan for cheap electricity on October 19.
The proposals of the provincial governments have also been a part of the project.
The Government of Pakistan has recently decided to convert its present imported coal-based power plants to run on local coal. These plants include the Port Qasim plant, Sahiwal plant, and China Hub plant with a 1.32 GW capacity each. The countrys fuel import bill surpassed US$20bn in the last fiscal year (2021-2022), thus this initiative is being taken to scale down the fuel import costs and lessen dependence on imported fuel for power generation.
Moreover, Pakistans Power Division has also announced to replace of a projected 300 MW imported coal plant in Gwadar (southern Pakistan) with a solar plant. The project, started under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), was approved in 2016 but construction had not yet begun. Now Pakistans Power division considers requesting China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) to replace the imported coal-based plant with a solar plant of the same capacity.