Pakistan to double electricity generation capacity next year

The overall power generation capacity of Pakistan at the end of 2012-13 was 20,849 Megawatt when PML-N government came into power and launched CPEC with major focus on energy and road infrastructure projects, newztoday.com said.

During year 2020-21, power generation capacity of 3,933 Megawatt (MW) including 447 MW from renewable energy will be added which will increase the existing installed capacity from 37,402 MW to 41335 MW, reveals an Annual Plan 2020-21 released by PTI government.

In year 2019-20, 1441 MW power will be added in the national grid. As a result, the installed capacity would be enhanced from 35,961 MW to 37402 MW.

As on June 2020, overall generation mix will consist of 49.1 per cent indigenous resources and 50.9 per cent imported fuels.

However despite increased generation capacity, due to Covid-19 Pakistan’s power sector may face an unusual situation because of decreased demand of electric power consumption. The energy demand could be suppressed for all primary energy sources like electricity, natural gas, LNG and petroleum products during the next financial year 2020-21.

In the power sector, plant utilization factors for power generation stations will be low, increasing the cost of electricity, reveals Annual Plan adding that the power sector reforms would be accelerated to improve the energy transmission and distribution performance and overall management of power sector. Special attention would be given to reduce the power losses to bring down the cost of electricity, it added.

An amount of Rs 204.54 billion has been proposed in PSDP 2020-21 for power sector projects of generation, transmission and distribution including government budgeted, self-finance of power sector corporations excluding IPPs.

An amount of Rs 216.36 billion was allocated in SPDP 2019-20 for power sector projects including self-finance by the power sector corporation and excluding cost of IPPs. As on June 2019, overall generation mix consisted of 50.51 per cent indigenous resources and 49.44 per cent imported fuels.

Losses of power distribution companies are still higher than the global average of around 8 per cent. Higher losses will be curtailed through power distribution companies (Discos) enhancement projects. The government has given targets to Discos to reduce losses in next financial year.

About The Author