Thar desert region in Pakistan is endowed with one of the largest coal reserves in the world. Discovered in early 1990s, the Thar coal has not yet been developed to produce usable energy. With the devastating increases in imported oil bill and the growing shortages of gas and electricity in the country, the coal development is finally beginning to get the attention it deserves. Coal contributes about 20% of the worldwide greenhouse gas emissions but it is the cheapest fuel available, according to Pew Center on Global Climate Change. It can provide usable energy at a cost of between $1 and $2 per MMBtu compared to $6 to $12 per MMBtu for oil and natural gas, and coal prices are relatively stable. Coal is inherently higher-polluting and more carbon-intensive than other energy alternatives. However, coal is so inexpensive that one can spend quite a bit on pollution control and still maintain coal’s competitive position.
At the end of the decade of 1990s when the economy was stagnant, Pakistan had about 1200 MW excess capacity. Between 2000 and 2008, the electricity demand from industries and consumers grew dramatically with the rapid economic expansion that more than doubled the nation's GDP from $60 billion to $170 billion. The Musharraf government added about 3500 MW of capacity during this period which still left a gap of over 1500 MW by 2008. The economy has since slowed to a crawl, the electricity demand has decreased, and yet the nation is suffering the worst ever power outages in the history of Pakistan. As discussed in an earlier post, Pakistan's current installed capacity is around 18,500 MW, of which around 20% is hydroelectric. Much of the rest is thermal, fueled primarily by gas and oil. Pakistan Electric Power Company PEPCO blames independent power producers (IPPs) for the electricity crisis, as they have only been able to give PEPCO much less than the 5,800 MW of confirmed capacity. Most of the power plants in the country are operating well below installed capacity because the operators are not being paid enough to buy fuel. Circular debt owed to the power producers and oil companies is currently believed to be largely responsible for severe load shedding affecting most of the nation.
The circular debt has assumed alarming portions since 2008, resulting in the current severe power problems. Former finance minister Saukat Tarin recently told the News that “in real terms the circular debt has swelled to Rs108 billion which mainly includes non-payment of Rs42 billion by KESC, Rs21 billion by the government of Sindh and Rs15-16 billion from commercial consumers to the Pakistan Electric Power Company (Pepco)". Just prior to leaving office, Tarin decided to raise Rs. 25 billion as a small step toward settling the swelling unpaid bills owed to power producers.
Per capita energy consumption in Pakistan is estimated at 14.2 million Btu, which is much higher than Bangladesh's 5 million BTUs per capita but slightly less than India's 15.9 million BTU per capita energy consumption. South Asia's per capita energy consumption is only a fraction of other industrializing economies in Asia region such as China (56.2 million BTU), Thailand (58 million BTU) and Malaysia (104 million BTU), according to the US Dept of Energy 2006 report. To put it in perspective, the world average per capita energy use is about 65 million BTUs and the average American consumes 352 million BTUs. With 40% of the Pakistani households that have yet to receive electricity, and only 18% of the households that have access to pipeline gas, the energy sector is expected to play a critical role in economic and social development. With this growth comes higher energy consumption and stronger pressures on the country’s energy resources. At present, natural gas and oil supply the bulk (80 percent) of Pakistan’s energy needs. However, the consumption of those energy sources vastly exceeds the supply. For instance, Pakistan currently produces only 18.3 percent of the oil it consumes, fostering a dependency on imports that places considerable strain on the country’s financial position. On the other hand, hydro and coal are perhaps underutilized today, as Pakistan has ample potential supplies of both.
The country's creaky and outdated electricity infrastructure loses over 30 percent, some of it due to rampant power theft, of generated power in transit, more than seven times the losses of a well-run system, according to the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank; and a lack of spare high-voltage grid capacity limits the transmission of power from hydroelectric plants in the north to make up for shortfalls in the south.
It does seem that Pakistan is finally getting serious about utilizing its vast coal resources to produce electricity and gas. Talking recently with GeoTV's Hamid Mir, Pepco Managing Director Tahir Basharat Cheema shared the following list of coal projects being launched:
1. The Sind Government has awarded a 1200 MW project to extract Thar coal and produce electricity to Engro Power.
2. A similar 1200 MW project is being undertaken by Pepco in Thar. The Pepco project also includes a 700 Km transmission line to connect Thar plants with the national grid.
3. An experimental project for underground coal gasification is being built by Pakistani nuclear scientist Dr. Mubarakmand to tap underground coal to produce 50 MW.
4. Another experimental 50 MW project using pressure coal gasification is planned by Pepco.
The coal and various renewable energy projects are expected to be online in the next 2 to 5 years. If these projects do succeed and more investors are attracted to the power sector, then Pakistan has the potential to produce about 100,000 MW a year for a century or longer. But these efforts will not help in the short or immediate term. What is urgently needed is decisive action to resolve the circular debt problems and restore power generation to full installed capacity immediately.
Here is a video clip of former president General Musharraf talking about the worst ever load shedding being faced by Pakistanis today:
Related Links:
Pakistan's Twin Energy Crises of Gas and Electricity
Pakistan's Load Shedding and Circular Debt
CO2 Emissions, Birth, Death Rates By Country
US Fears Aid Will Feed Graft in Pakistan
Pakistan Swallows IMF's Bitter Medicine
Shaukat Aziz's Economic Legacy
Karachi Tops Mumbai in Stock Performance
Pakistan's Electricity Crisis
Pepco Increases Load Shedding By 5 Hours
Pakistan's Gas Pipeline and Distribution Network
Pakistan's Energy Statistics
US Department of Energy Data
China Signs Power Plant Deals in Pakistan
Pakistan Pursues Hydroelectric Projects
Water Scarcity in Pakistan
Energy from Thorium
Comparing US and Pakistani Tax Evasion
Zardari Corruption Probe
Pakistan's Oil and Gas Report 2010
Circular Electricity Debt Problem
International CNG Vehicles Association
Lessons From IPP Experience in Pakistan
Correlation Between Human Development and Energy Consumption
BMI Energy Forecast Pakistan
56 comments:
In your discussion you use Thar coal as producing a major portion of Pakistan's power needs. You discuss a number of projects as viable. Please also provide a schedule for producing power from this source.
Sher,
People in charge of coal, particularly WAPDA Pepco MD Cheema, are talking about 3-5 years. I hope there is enough public pressure now to execute these projects on what is being called "war footing".
NEW DELHI, April 18: India now has 100 million more people living below the poverty line than in 2004, according to official estimates released on Sunday.
The poverty rate has risen to 37.2 per cent of the population from 27.5 per cent in 2004, a change that will require the Congress-ruled government to spend more money on the poor.
The new estimate comes weeks after Sonia Gandhi, head of the Congress party, asked the government to revise a Food Security Bill to include more women, children and destitutes.
“The Planning Commission has accepted the report on poverty figures,” Abhijit Sen, a member of the Planning Commission said, referring to the new poverty estimate report submitted by a government panel last December.
India now has 410 million people living below the UN estimated poverty line of $1.25 a day, 100 million more than was estimated earlier, officials said.
India calculates how much of its population is living below the poverty line by checking whether families can afford one square meal a day that meets minimum nutrition needs.
A third of the world’s poor are believed to be in India, living on less than $2 per day, worse than in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa, experts say.
The Indian government spends only 1 per cent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on healthcare facilities, forcing millions to struggle to get medicines, Oxfam and 62 other agencies said in a report called: “Your Money or Your Life” last year.
While India’s economy is slowly recovering from a global recession with a GDP growth of 7.2 per cent, millions of poor in rural India are finding it difficult to cope with around 17 per cent food price inflation.—Reuters
Nothing to do with cheap coal in Pakistan, but everything to do with expensive limes in India!. Now that MNC are bottling fresh lime soft drinks, is this why limes are costing 2-3 for Rs 10? And in this murderous weather?
The recent Forbes Global 2000 listing is a telling indicator of India's rising economic might as well economic weakness of Pakistan. Fully 56 Indian companies are included in the prestigious list of the world's 2000 most important firms while only one Pakistani firm made it to the list. Even more interestingly, a number of Indian firms are ranked among the top 500 of the Global 2000. These include firms such as ONGC (155), ICICI Bank (282), Indian Oil (313), NTPC (341), Tata Steel (345), Bharti Airtel (471). There is no way such unprecedented - and ongoing, not one-time - rise in India's economic cannot not have an impact on the thinking of Pakistani Establishment vis-a-vis relationship with India.
India's Global 2000 firms are discussed here in TOI:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/biz/india-business/56-Indian-companies-among-Forbes-Global-2000-list-/articleshow/5844262.cms
anon: "The recent Forbes Global 2000 listing is a telling indicator of India's rising economic might as well economic weakness of Pakistan."
India(49) also has more than twice as many billionaires as Japan (22) which is a far richer country.
Indian and UNICEF officials concur that Indians are much worse off than Pakistanis and Bangladeshis in basic nutrition and sanitation.
Meanwhile, India is worse than Bangladesh and Pakistan when it comes to nourishment and is showing little improvement in the area despite big money being spent on it, says Planning Commission member Syeda Hameed.
India might be an emerging economic power, but it is way behind Pakistan, Bangladesh and even Afghanistan in providing basic sanitation facilities, a key reason behind the death of 2.1 million children under five in the country.Lizette Burgers, chief water and environment sanitation of the UNICEF, said India is making progress in providing sanitation but it lags behind most of the other countries in South Asia.
Most of the 8-9% growth has fattened the bottom line of a small percentage of India's population, with the rest getting poorer. India's Gini Index has increased from about 32 to 36 from 2000 to 2007.
India now has 100 million more people living below the poverty line than in 2004, according to official estimates released on Sunday. The poverty rate has risen to 37.2 percent of the population from 27.5 percent in 2004, according to a Reuters report.
The rising gap between abject poverty and obscene wealth in India is fueling anger, and insurgencies such as the Maoists'.
Good that Pak govt is realizing that the people who are constantly demonized in Pakistan (aka Hindus) are the ones who will save their economy. Someone said that truth is stranger than fiction.
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ISLAMABAD: Pakistan government should consider granting
India the 'Most Favoured Nation' status to exploit the huge
trade potential as free trade relations with it will
enable the country to achieve higher and more equitable
GDP growth, an official panel has recommended.
The recommendation was made by the Panel of Economists,
constituted by the Planning Commission, in its final report.
The report said as a first step, trade relations between
the two countries should be normalised by trading on the
Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status.
As a second step, policymakers should address problems
related to information exchange, trade facilitation,
banking, non-tariff barriers, visas and communication.
The third step is to enable environment for investment
has to be created so that India and Pakistan can enter
into joint ventures, the Business Recorder daily reported today.
The panel asked the government to allow the import from
India of raw materials not available locally.
"It is essential to move from a positive list approach to a
negative list approach. It is important for the two
countries to have a common Harmonised System of Codes
and greater transparency," the panel's report said.
"The current DTRE scheme whereby quotas are fixed for
raw material imports from India meant specifically for
exports suffers from red-tapism and graft. A better
solution is to open up raw material imports across the board," the report added.
The panel also recommended the opening the Attari-Wagah
border to allow transportation of goods by road at the
earliest as this link is already operational for movement
of passengers and asked the government to consider allowing
India-Pakistan joint ventures.
"Currently, there are no India-Pakistan joint ventures.
As several Indian companies are showing interest in
having joint ventures in Pakistan, it is important to
understand the nature of such investments and provide
timely facilitation," the report said.
The report noted that payments through formal channels
assume a greater role as there is evidence of anonymous
transactions between trading partners. Currently, the
payments system is formalised through the Asian Clearing
Union, which is inefficient as payments are often delayed.
Here's a NY Times report about Pakistan's growing power crisis:
Pakistan is in the throes of an energy crisis, with Pakistanis now enduring about 12 hours of power cuts a day, a grueling schedule that is melting ice, stopping fans and enraging an already exhausted populace just as the blast furnace of summer gets started.
In an effort to stem that frustration, Pakistan’s government held an emergency meeting last week, bringing together top bureaucrats from across the country. But instead of easing the problem, it aggravated it, ordering power-saving measures that seemed calculated to smother some Pakistanis’ last remaining pleasures.
“They are playing a joke on us,” said Amina Ali, the mother of a bride at a wedding hall that was under orders to close early as part of the new energy-saving restrictions. Her brother chimed in: “The Pakistani people are a toy in the hands of the government.”
The power failures could prove destabilizing if they go unchecked, analysts said. Pakistan badly needs its economy to expand to make space for its bulging young population, and chronic power cuts work against that.
It is a concern for the United States, which is trying to help steady Pakistan’s wobbly finances and keep its democratically elected government afloat. The Obama administration has pledged about $1 billion for energy over the next five years.
The crisis is a snarl of unmet responsibilities, and untangling it will not be easy. It has a cast of guilty characters that goes back years: governments that are incapable of planning ahead; bureaucrats who take bribes; even ordinary people who steal about 30 percent of all the power produced. The tribal areas in the west, for example, have no meters and have never paid for power.
The result is about $2 billion a year in energy that is generated but not paid for. Industry experts said they were skeptical the government had a way to close the growing gap between Pakistan’s demand for power and the energy sector’s ability to produce it.
“There is nobody in Islamabad who is working on a coherent, integrated plan,” said one industry executive who asked not to be identified because he did not want to be seen as being critical of the government. “The discussion just keeps going in circles.”
Here are excerpts from a Washington Post report about China-Pakistan nuclear deal:
"President Obama has strongly advocated for restrictions on the spread of nuclear technology. But his administration has said little publicly about the China-Pakistan deal. Meanwhile, the administration announced Tuesday that China, despite its misgivings, had signed on to a draft U.N. Security Council resolution sanctioning Iran."
"A senior administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to talk more freely, said the United States is waiting for China to detail how it plans to proceed with this transaction. "We don't have much clarity, and so the issue has not ripened in the government," he said. He said any claim that the reactors are grandfathered "would be a hard case to make," but China could seek a formal exemption from the guidelines -- which are voluntary in any case.
Indeed, complicating matters is that the United States, after hard lobbying, in 2008 won a specific exemption at the NSG for trade with India, Pakistan's nuclear-armed rival. Pakistan has long wanted its own exemption -- and the United States has refused -- but the administration may not want to roil relations with Islamabad at a time when their partnership on counterterrorism is seen as crucial."
"Daryl G. Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, said the China-Pakistan deal "is some of the fallout of the India-U.S. civil nuclear agreement" -- which included the special exemption for nuclear trade. The deal was a Bush administration initiative -- but was avidly supported by then-Sens. Barack Obama, Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Hillary Rodham Clinton."
I feel the economic crisis only cements the need for business to realise that good environmental policy makes good business sense. With the introduction of the 2010 carbon pollution reduction scheme (formally known as emission trading scheme), most experts agree on one thing. Energy prices will rise. Businesses that operate more efficiently and get their processes for low-energy operations right today, will be well positioned when the inevitable price rises happen in 2010. Expect efficiency and reduction of energy consumption to go straight to the bottom line. I feel when times are tough (like now!) businesses should be looking to cut costs (which means becoming more efficient) and stand out further from the crowd. Businesses all around the world are bearing the fruits of an environmental policy which creates differentiation and exudes an ethical brand to consumers. Businesses today face ever increasing competition and ever-aware consumers who factor environmental issues into their buying decisions.
Pakistan Petroleum is seeking tenders to develop oil and gas resources in Pakistan, according to Oil Voice:
Exploration in these licenses is expected to convert conventional and unconventional hydrocarbon resources in to reserves. There are stratigraphic traps, tight gas, shale gas etc.
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Dera Ismail Khan Block Overview:
The block lies in the Suleiman Foredeep with Sargodha High in the East, Khishor & Marwat Ranges in the North, Suleiman Foldbelt in the West and the Zindapir anticlinorium in the South. The development of Suleiman Foredeep is related with an uplift of the Suleiman Range, which is believed to be related to early and late Tertiary inversion of extensional and trans-tensional basins along the northwest margins of the Indian continental plate.
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The block contains the stratigraphic play at Eocene and Paleocene levels. The Sembar Formation (Cretaceous) is the proven source rock in the nearby Dhodak & Salsabil Gas Fields, which lies in the Gas window in the West of D. I. Khan block. The primary reservoir targets are the Stratigraphic pinch out of Habib Rahi Limestone (Eocene) and the truncations of Lower Ranikot Formation (Paleocene). The Secondary target is the Pab Sandstone (Cretaceous). The seal is comprised of Intra Eocene Shales and the Shales of Chitarwata Formation (Oligocene) above the Base Oligocene unconformity. The Lower Ranikot and Pab Sandstone are the proven Gas/Condensate reservoir in the Dhodak and Salsabil Gas Fields.
The Kamiab-1 well (Amoco, 1974) drilled in the East encountered the significant Gas shows in the Lower Ranikot Formation.
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Sirani Block Overview:
The Sembar Formation (Lower-Cretaceous) is the proven source rock in the area. Sands of Lower Goru Formation (Lower Cretaceous) are producing in nearby fields and have good reservoir quality. Shales of Upper Goru & intraformational shales provide the seal. Tilted Faults Blocks are expected in the Block.
• Four leads identified on vintage seismic data. New seismic likely to yield more leads
• Proximity to the producing Badin Oil fields to the west
• Possibility of finding additional leads in southern marshy area where no seismic data has been acquired. Good shows encountered in some wells in the block
• Nearby existing infrastructure
• Low cost drilling operations as minimum problems are expected.
• Early production through Extended Well Testing (EWT)
Naushahro Firoz Block Overview:
The Naushahro Firoz block lies in a zone with a proven petroleum system from different reservoirs. The Zamzama gas condensate discovery (2.3 Tcf and 12 MMbo)) from Late Cretaceous Pab sandstone lies to the west and Sawan gas discovery (1.5 Tcf) from Lower Cretaceous Lower Goru sandstone lies to the East of the block. Sui Main Limestone (SML) of Eocene age is a proven reservoir in a number of discoveries (over 2 Tcf reserves) located in the north of the block. The reservoir quality of SML is also proven by the Sagyun-01 well drilled in the block and wells drilled in the surrounding area. One lead and a possibility of another lead identified at SML level on sparse vintage data.
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Jungshahi Block Overview:
The Jungshahi block lies to the east of two gas discoveries. An untested surface lead is separated from a gas field by a broad syncline. The Block is close to the Kitchen area. Untested surface anticlines are present in the block. Proven reservoir rocks of Paleocene and Cretaceous are present. Significant gas shows have been observed in Lower and Upper Ranikot formations in the wells drilled in the block. The Block is located close to an existing gas pipeline / infrastructure and commercial hub at Karachi. Early production is expected through EWT.
Sindh govt allocates Rs. 3.7 billion for Thar coal development in 2011-12 budget, according to Dawn:
KARACHI, June 11: Tormented by the power shortages the Sindh government focuses on developing indigenous coal reserves. In the next Annual Development Plan it has earmarked Rs3710.937 million for Thar coal project.
For energy sector a total of Rs1214.499 million has been kept in the ADP 2011-12. This include Rs1100 million for the coal gasification project.
Sindh Finance Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah while explaining salient features of the budget for 2011-12 said: “Thar coal reserves of 175 billion tons are ample for provision of cost-effective energy for centuries”.
He said that once the reserves were properly exploited they could help in generating 20,000MW by 2020.
Recently, in international competitive bidding, two Chinese companies, an Australian company, and Pakistan Petroleum Limited participated.
As a result, two Chinese companies have been selected to undertake coal exploration, power generation and establishing petro-chemical complex at two blocks of Thar.
He said the bankable feasibility study for joint venture project of the Sindh government and Engro was created to boost the potential in a record period of eight months.
The Sindh government and the federal government have included this project in the list of projects to be taken up with the Pak-China Joint Energy Working Group (JEWG) formed during the last visit of the Chinese prime minister to Pakistan, he said.
Leading Chinese companies have shown strong interest in executing this project. The mining and power generation from this project is expected in 2015-16 depending upon the financing arrangements for the project.
The test burn at Underground Coal Gasification (UCG) is expected during coming financial year. After successful testing, the project will be scaled up to produce 2x50MW electricity.
He said the government has made serious efforts to provide critical infrastructure for development of Thar coal.
A scheme for bringing water to Thar from Makhi Farash has been approved by ECNEC, feasibility studies for effluent disposal and laying of broad-gauge railway line are to be completed in June, 2011.
Work on improvement and widening of road for movement of heavy machinery from Karachi to Mithi-Islamkot is expected to start in next year.
According to rough calculations an amount of $1.20 billion is needed over a period of next five years to develop the required infrastructure for Thar.
Serious efforts are also in place to exploit the Gharo-Keti Bandar wind corridor.
During the Sindh chief minister`s recent visit to South Korea an MoU to generate 2000MW of wind energy was signed with Korea Southern Power Company.
The issue of electric power is of great priority for Sindh. The CCI has given approval to the removal of a limit on the ceiling of 50MW, which was earlier set at which provinces could construct power plants.
The Sindh government has signed a letter of intent with the Three Gorges Project Corporation, China`s premier electricity producer, to help explore the hydro power potential in Sindh.
A team from CWE, a subsidiary of the Three Gorges, recently visited Sukkur Barrage to gauge the potential for constructing a power plant.
Under the village electrification programme 446 villages were provided electricity during 2010-11, while the process for providing power to 350 more villages is underway.
Here's an assessment of Pakistan's electricity crisis as published in Dawn:
Renowned Scientist and Member Science and Technology, Planning Commission of Pakistan Dr Samar Mubarakmand on Tuesday said the development of Thar coal was the only viable long-term solution to energy crisis prevailing in the country.
“Only Thar Coal can provide guaranteed long-term energy security to Pakistan,” he said while speaking at Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI).
He said that the solution to power shortage had to be found indigenously and in this regard the Thar coal was the best option.
He said the electricity generated through integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) plants would cost Rs7 per KWH. He said that coal could also be converted into coal gas above the ground in machines called surface gasifiers, and the efficiency of the conversion of coal gas to electricity is about 40 per cent.
Dr Samar said that Thar Coal reserves could play a pivotal role in meeting energy crises both in long term and short term which would enhance industrial competitiveness due to cost effectiveness.
He said that the industrial sector could not wait for long and the government should present quick solution to fill in the gap between demand and supply of energy
He said that the 41 per cent electricity of the world was being produced from the coal, adding that India was producing 64.6 per cent electricity from the coal, whereas Pakistan was only producing 2.27 per cent electricity from coal. He said that 95 per cent natural wealth was not being utilised, whereas not a single kg of coal was mined.
He said that the current energy crisis was causing loss of Rs230 billion and rendering 400,000 people jobless. Current dependable power supply hovers around 14,000MW in summer though it drops in the winter.
On the other hand power demand in 2030 would be more than 100,000MW, he added.
Meanwhile, Mahfooz Elahi, President ICCI said that energy was the key determinant of economic development of the country as Pakistan has been facing an unprecedented energy crisis for past few years.
The government must look towards building power plants and tap alternative energy resources for overcoming power shortage, he maintained.
ICCI President said that delay in fulfilment of export consignments has become a matter of routine due to power outages.
To meet the growing demands of energy, Government should exploit its domestic energy resources which would make the country self-reliant, he emphasised.
http://www.dawn.com/2011/07/06/solution-to-energy-crisis-lies-in-tapping-thar-coal.html
From Global Warming Power Foundation:
New Delhi, Oct 12 (IANS) A severe shortage of coal has hit electricity output in the country and led to long and frequent power outages in many states, including the national capital, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
Most of the plants of the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), the country’s largest power producer, have been generating significantly less power than their installed capacity for the last couple of weeks due to the shortage of coal supply, an official said Wednesday.
Heavy rains in coal producing areas and a two-day strike by workers of Coal India compounded the problems of many power plants across the country, he said.
http://www.thegwpf.org/international-news/4086-reality-check-coal-shortage-leads-to-power-outages-across-india.html
From India Today:
The power sector is still struggling around the half-way mark of the ambitious target of 78,755 MW fixed for the 11th Five-Year Plan (2007-12), which was set to fulfil the UPA government's dream providing "power for all" by March 2012.
An acute shortage of coal and gas, environmental issues and the lack of funds for investing into new projects have been responsible for holding up the expansion plans in the power sector even as the demand has steadily been growing.
Given the slow pace of implementing new projects, the Planning Commission had in its midterm review slashed the target for the 11th Plan to 62,000 MW. However, the capacity addition the end of March this year was a mere 34,462 MW.
The government has now reduced its power capacity addition target for the 11th Plan to 50,000 MW but even this is unlikely to be met in the remaining months of the current financial year as each of the ultra mega power plants of 4,000 MW and above has run into fuel linkage problems.
The initiative of private sector companies - such as the Reliance Power and the Tatas - buy coalmines in Indonesia and Australia to source coal has also come a cropper as these countries have changed their pricing policy to jack up the price of the fuel. These projects do not appear viable at the moment due to the low tariffs fixed for the electricity they are expected to generate.
The shortage of natural gas is also posing a problem as the output from the giant KG basin eastern offshore gas field, operated by the Reliance Industries, has fallen short of its target. The failure of Coal India Ltd to move out huge stockpiles of coal at the pitheads of its mines is also affecting existing power generation capacity, which is adding to the woes of the consumers.
Land acquisition for the power plants another hurdle as the government has been taking its time for formulating the new policy.
The estimated potential of the hydropower in the country has been put at 1,50,000 MW but only 30,000 MW has been harnessed. Sufficient investments are not being made in this segment despite a liberal policy, which allows the sale at market rates of up to 40 per cent of the total energy produced to the commercial sector.
The sharp rise in the interest rate - which has crossed the 13 per cent-mark - has also forced many power companies to take a relook at their investment plans since this has impacted the profitability of the proposed projects. Economists attribute the hardening of interest rates to the hawkish monetary policy of the RBI, which has raised key interest rates 12 times this year to control inflation.
Read more at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/power-outages-power-sector-upa-government/1/155005.html
Here's an excerpt of a report in The Nation about an International Coal Conf in Karachi:
The international conference was told that Thar region of Sindh province is endowed with mammoth coal (lignite) reserves estimated to be 175 billion tonnes which can produce 100,000MW of electricity for next 300 years and can be a key to energy security and economic prosperity.
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“The government has started working on the policy of retrofitting 5300MW of furnace oil based power plants to coal-based initially on imported coal and then on indigenous coal when available,” he (Minister Naveed Qamar) informed the audience.
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Removing the misconceptions about Thar coal, Dr Marcos Leontidis, mining expert from Greece, said that the stripping ratio in Thar is around 6.6: 1, which is much better than many lignite mines in the world including Greece.
Dr Larry Thomas, coal expert from United Kingdom, said that sulphur content in Thar is acceptable being at 0.7%, which is lower than found in many other lignite resources already being used in the world and its moisture levels are same or even less than found in most of the lignite mines in the world. He further said the coal from Thar although may not be exportable to other countries but can be transported to be used in other parts of the province after drying.
Nigel Pickett from SRK-UK in his presentation said renewable energy cannot provide Pakistan reliable energy supplies due to its seasonal and cyclic nature. It has to be part of our energy mix to meet the peak demands and reduce fossil fuel consumption. Volatility of oil prices in 2007 brought heavy stress on the economy and indigenous coal provides the only option to achieve energy security for the country.
Zubair Motiwala, Chairman Sindh Board of Investment, briefed the forum about investment potential of Thar coal and said many international companies from China, South Korea, Germany, Czech Republic, Australia, UK and Turkey have shown their interest in investment in coal mining and power generation in Thar coal and also in the infrastructure projects. He also informed that the Government of Sindh is conducting 3rd International Competitive Bidding for blocks VIII, IX and X of Thar Coalfield and also blocks in Sonda and Badin for attracting international companies to develop coal mining and power generation projects in Sindh.
Mohammad Younus Dagha, Provincial Secretary Coal and Energy Development Department/MD Thar Coal and Energy Board stressed the need to create an ideal energy mix by replacing imported furnace oil to indigenous coal for power generation.
http://nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/Business/23-Oct-2011/5300MW-plants-will-be-converted-to-coal-Qamar
Here's David Brooks of NY Times on "shale gas revolution" in America:
The United States is a country that has received many blessings, and once upon a time you could assume that Americans would come together to take advantage of them. But you can no longer make that assumption. The country is more divided and more clogged by special interests. Now we groan to absorb even the most wondrous gifts.
A few years ago, a business genius named George P. Mitchell helped offer such a gift. As Daniel Yergin writes in “The Quest,” his gripping history of energy innovation, Mitchell fought through waves of skepticism and opposition to extract natural gas from shale. The method he and his team used to release the trapped gas, called fracking, has paid off in the most immense way. In 2000, shale gas represented just 1 percent of American natural gas supplies. Today, it is 30 percent and rising.
John Rowe, the chief executive of the utility Exelon, which derives almost all its power from nuclear plants, says that shale gas is one of the most important energy revolutions of his lifetime. It’s a cliché word, Yergin told me, but the fracking innovation is game-changing. It transforms the energy marketplace.
The U.S. now seems to possess a 100-year supply of natural gas, which is the cleanest of the fossil fuels. This cleaner, cheaper energy source is already replacing dirtier coal-fired plants. It could serve as the ideal bridge, Amy Jaffe of Rice University says, until renewable sources like wind and solar mature.
Already shale gas has produced more than half a million new jobs, not only in traditional areas like Texas but also in economically wounded places like western Pennsylvania and, soon, Ohio. If current trends continue, there are hundreds of thousands of new jobs to come.
Chemical companies rely heavily on natural gas, and the abundance of this new source has induced companies like Dow Chemical to invest in the U.S. rather than abroad. The French company Vallourec is building a $650 million plant in Youngstown, Ohio, to make steel tubes for the wells. States like Pennsylvania, Ohio and New York will reap billions in additional revenue. Consumers also benefit. Today, natural gas prices are less than half of what they were three years ago, lowering electricity prices. Meanwhile, America is less reliant on foreign suppliers.
All of this is tremendously good news, but, of course, nothing is that simple. The U.S. is polarized between “drill, baby, drill” conservatives, who seem suspicious of most regulation, and some environmentalists, who seem to regard fossil fuels as morally corrupt and imagine we can switch to wind and solar overnight.
The shale gas revolution challenges the coal industry, renders new nuclear plants uneconomic and changes the economics for the renewable energy companies, which are now much further from viability. So forces have gathered against shale gas, with predictable results.
The clashes between the industry and the environmentalists are now becoming brutal and totalistic, dehumanizing each side. Not-in-my-backyard activists are organizing to prevent exploration. Environmentalists and their publicists wax apocalyptic.
Like every energy source, fracking has its dangers. The process involves injecting large amounts of water and chemicals deep underground. If done right, this should not contaminate freshwater supplies, but rogue companies have screwed up and there have been instances of contamination.
The wells, which are sometimes beneath residential areas, are serviced by big trucks that damage the roads and alter the atmosphere in neighborhoods. A few sloppy companies could discredit the whole sector...........
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/04/opinion/brooks-the-shale-gas-revolution.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=brooks&st=cse
Here's a NY Times story on India benefiting from plummeting prices of solar panels and solar energy:
Over the last decade, India has opened the state-dominated power-generating industry to private players, while leaving distribution and rate-setting largely in government hands. European countries heavily subsidize solar power by agreeing to buy it for decades at a time, but the subsidies in India are lower and solar operators are forced into to greater competition, helping push down costs.
This month, the government held its second auction to determine the price at which its state-owned power trading company — NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam — would buy solar-generated electricity for the national grid. The average winning bid was 8.77 rupees (16.5 cents) per kilowatt hour.
That is about twice the price of coal-generated power, but it was about 27 percent lower than the winning bids at the auction held a year ago. Germany, the world’s biggest solar-power user, pays about 17.94 euro cents (23 American cents) per kilowatt hour.
India still significantly lags behind European countries in the use of solar. Germany, for example, had 17,000 megawatts of solar power capacity at the end of 2010. But India, which gets more than 300 days of sunlight a year, is a more suitable place to generate solar power. And being behind is now benefiting India, as panel prices plummet, enabling it to spend far less to set up solar farms than countries that pioneered the technology.
In its solar power auctions, moreover, NTPC is not creating open-ended contracts. The last auction, for example, was for a total of only 350 megawatts, which will cap the government’s costs. The assumption is that the price of solar power will continue to decline, eventually approaching the cost of electricity generated through conventional methods.
Most Indian power plants are fueled by coal and generate electricity at about 4 rupees (7.5 cents) per kilowatt hour — less than half of solar’s cost now. In this month’s auction, the recent winning bids were comparable to what India’s industrial and commercial users pay for electricity — from 8 to 10 rupees. And solar’s costs are competitive with power plants and back-up generators that burn petroleum-based fuels, whose electricity costs about 10 rupees per kilowatt hour.
“At least during daytime, photovoltaic panels will compete with oil-generated electricity more than anything else” in India, said Cédric Philibert, a senior analyst at the International Energy Agency in Paris. “This comparison is becoming better and better every month.”
In addition to the federal government, several of India’s states like Gujarat, where Khadoda is located, are also buying power at subsidized rates from solar companies like Azure Power.
Analysts do not expect India’s solar rollout to be problem free. They say some developers have probably bid too aggressively in the federal auctions and may not be able to build their plants fast or cheap enough to survive. Consequently, or because their bids were speculative, some developers are trying to sell their government power agreements to third parties, analysts say, even though such flipping is against the auction rules.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/29/business/energy-environment/in-solar-power-india-begins-living-up-to-its-own-ambitions.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&ref=todayspaper
Here are some promises by WAPDA as reported in The News:
“WAPDA is also working on projects that will generate 35,500 MW of hydroelectricity including 22,800 MW run of the river projects,” WAPDA Chairman Sahkeel Durrani said.
“We are committed to ensure that Pakistan takes full advantage of its hydroelectricity production potential,” he said.
The first unit of 96 MW hydropower project at Jinnah Barrage has already been commissioned and it would start operating on full capacity by the end of this year, he said.
Durrani said that the 121 MW Allai Khwar project at Battagram is almost complete and would start generating power within few months.
“Duber Khwar - a 130 MW hydroelectric project at Kohistan, is scheduled to generate full power by December 2012,” he added. In addition Satpara Dam is generating 17.36 MW of hydroelectricity.
The 72 MW Khan Khwar hydropower project in 2011 is already generating its installed capacity, Durrani said.
“This is a humble contribution of WAPDA to reduce the gap between demand and supply of electricity,” he said.
Work on high capacity hydroelectricity projects is in full swing. He said the feasibility study and detailed engineering and design of 7,100 MW Bunji project in Gilgit Baltistan has been completed and is currently under review of WAPDA experts.
He said feasibility study of Dasu Dam in Khyber Pakhtunkwa has been completed. This dam he added would store 1.15 million acres of water and produce 4320 MW hydro electricity. “Consultants for preparation of detailed design and tender documents have been mobilized,” he added.
“Hydroelectric power projects having the potential to recover cost in short time are darlings of world donor agencies,” he said. Finances for such projects are available with much ease than other power projects.
There are 17 run of the river power generation sites that have been identified by WAPDA experts and work on the feasibility studies on most of them have been initiated.
These include some high power potential projects like 2100 MW Tungas, 2800 MW Yulbo at Sakurdu, 2800 MW Thakott at Besham and 2800 Patan at Patan.
He expressed confidence that the speed of work at Neelum Jehlum Hydroelectric Project would accelerate as the high tech tunnel boring machines have arrived at site. He said this would help WAPDA to complete the 969 MW power project on schedule in 2016.
Durrani said the 496 MW Lower Spat Gah; 665 MW Lower Palas Valley; and 600 MW Mahl; run of the river projects would be completed under Public Private Partnership. He hoped that the private sector would come forwards to grab this lucrative opportunity.
Chairman Water and Power Development Authority hoped that resources for 896 MW Tarbela (extension) and 1401 MW Munda Dam would be soon mobilized. Munda with a storage capacity of 1.3 million acres feet (MAF) would also act as buffer against floods in Khyber Pakhtumkhwa.
He said Mangla raising would add 2.88 MAF of water in the reservoirs. He said 34 MAF additional water storage would be available after completion of Munda Dam, Dasu Dam, Gomasl Zam Dam and Satpara Dam. He said Diamer Basha and Khurram Tungi Dam - both of which are ready for construction would add 9.3 MAF in water reservoirs.
He said the current water storage capacity in the country is 11.91 MAF after depletion of 4.37 MAF due to silting in the existing dams.
http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=92882&Cat=3
Here's a Reuters' report on coal in Pakistan:
Yet it has one of the biggest, barely-touched, single coal reserves on the planet - the massive Thar coalfield in the northern Sindh province with 175 billion tonnes of extremely high water-content, low energy coal.
This kind of low-grade, watery coal is found in abundance in other countries, such as Indonesia, the world's biggest exporter, but it has not been economic to exploit in the past.
But high oil and gas prices, rising coal prices and new technology to dry out watery, gaseous coal or leave it in the ground but extract the gas from it instead, has prompted projects around the world.
The Pakistan government this year declared the Thar coal fields as a Special Economic Zone, with tax breaks and incentives to lure investors to develop coal gasification and mining as part of its strategy to fill the energy gulf.
"In five years, coal's contribution to the energy mix will reach 10 to 12 percent. It's minor at the moment," said Najib Balagamwala, Chief Executive Officer of Karachi-based trader Seatrade.
"The private sector is considering coal-fired plants very seriously, as there's margin there," he added.
Pakistan's energy mix has changed in recent years from mostly hydro to thermal, consisting of domestic gas and imported fuel oil, according to a report by the Asia Development Bank this month.
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"The private sector is considering coal-fired plants very seriously, as there's margin there," he added.
Pakistan's energy mix has changed in recent years from mostly hydro to thermal, consisting of domestic gas and imported fuel oil, according to a report by the Asia Development Bank this month.
The supply-demand power gap at peak hours reached over 5,000 MW in financial year 2011, the ADB report said.
"The need for coal to fuel the rising demand for energy in Pakistan is well understood," said Shahrukh Khan, Chief Executive Officer of Oracle Coalfields PLC, which is developing mines in Sindh.
Of the 10 coal blocks in Thar, four have been drilled and explored by Oracle, Cougar Energy, SECMC and another un-named gasification project company, according to the Sindh province website on Thar.
Two Chinese firms are also looking to build gasification and coal mining projects in Thar, industry sources said.
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The high water content of Pakistan's domestic coal makes it tricky to mine and transport long distances economically but mine-mouth power plants and coal gassification projects to capture and extract gas trapped in coal seams without mining it are much more viable, industry sources said.....
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/13/pakistan-coal-idUSL6E8FC45O20120413
Here's a BR report on 50MW Chinese coal plants in Pakistan:
Established in 1990, Ghazi Fabrics International manufactures and exports yarns, including the Panther brand, to the Far East and European markets. Set up as the first composite unit of its kind and scale in the country, the Company's manufacturing units currently have an installed capacity of over 50,000 spindles ranking it among large spinning/weaving companies in the country.
The Company also operates a sister concern, Ghazi Power, which maintains a 20 megawatt captive power plant. Not sufficing with innovations within the textile sector, the Company is also venturing into cattle breeding and other initiatives. Director, Ghazi Fabrics, Kamran Arshad shared with BR Research, the mindset behind the progressive Company. The following are excerpts from this encounter:
BRR: What are the major milestones for the Company?
Kamran Arshad: In 1990, after acquiring land for setting up the facilities, we became the first company at that time to establish three textile mills in a single location simultaneously. Starting off with such a large base also brought along some teething concerns, as we did not have room to be able to learn from our mistakes before expanding. Partly as a result of this, we did not grow at the same rate as some of the other significant players. On the other hand, we are among very few companies that have never defaulted. We have always maintained good standing with all lenders and financial institutions and we are a very strong contributor to the national exchequer in the form of taxes.
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BRR: Has the Company considered coal based power generation?
KA: As a matter of fact, we are considering that and what we have found is that coal based power generation is feasible, if there is sufficient steam utilisation. If that happens, the tariff is similar to that offered by SNGPL. In China, there has been a recent shift in government policy regarding coal based power plants. Earlier that government had been promoting the establishment of such power plants, but now after the construction of the Three Gorges Dam, the Chinese government has ordered that all coal based power plants with a generation capacity of fewer than 50 megawatts, should be shutdown within two years.
As a consequence, these power plants are selling at half the price of a new plant. We believe there is an opportunity for Pakistan here and I am personally quite sure that some entrepreneurs will venture into bringing a power plant here from China. The composition of the coal produced in this country, be it from Thar or from Chakwal; is quite comparable to the Chinese variety so these power plants will require a few if any modifications.
http://www.brecorder.com/brief-recordings/0/1220006/
Here's John Daly of OilPrice.com on coal energy plans in Pakistan:
Pakistan has glimpsed its energy future, and it is brown – coal, to be exact.
Sindh Engro Coal Mining Co. is developing the $3 billion Thar Coal mining project in partnership with the government of Sindh. The Thar project is expected to produce 100 megawatts of electricity by 2016 using Underground Coal Gasification (UCG) technology. The Thar UCG pilot project is situated in the Tharparkar desert in Sindh eastern Pakistan.
UCG converts coal to gas while still in the coal seam, where injection wells are drilled and used to supply the oxidants to ignite and fuel the underground combustion process, with separate production wells bringing the resultant gas to the surface. The high pressure combustion is conducted at temperatures of 1,290–1,650 degrees Fahrenheit, but can reach up to 2,730 degrees Fahrenheit. The process produces carbon monoxide and dioxide, hydrogen and methane.
Boosters of the Thar UCG project note that Block Number 5 of Thar Coal Project contains 1.4 billion tons of low-grade lignite coal reserves. Overall the coal reserves at Thar are estimated at 175 billion tons of lignite coal.
The project is being driven by Pakistan’s dire electricity situation. With about 50 percent less electricity generation capability than the actual demand, Pakistan’s National Grid currently faces more than a 5,000-megawatt shortfall in power generation, leading to blackouts in both urban and rural areas of the country. Due to unscheduled shortages by the National Power Control Center, urban areas are now subjected to unscheduled minimum 8-hour power blackouts each day, while in some parts of the country, blackouts can last up to 22 hours.
So, where will the $3 billion financing come from? According to Sindh Engro Coal Mining Co. CEO Shamsuddin A. Shaikh, “The bulk of financing will be arranged from China - we may also seek funds from other places if need be.”
Interestingly, the Thar project may also improve relations with India. When asked about Thar's geographical proximity to India and the possibility of Indian participation in Thar Shaikh replied, “Yes, that's something we have in mind. India is supposed to develop an additional 100,000 megawatts based on coal in the next five years. India currently generates more than 50 percent of their electricity from coal, using about 450 million tons of coal every year. Most of that is indigenous and about 50 million tons is imported coal. They will need to import coal, we can utilize the railway line, which will be serving our own plants as well, to export coal to India. We can also put up a power plant at the mine mouth and export electricity to India. The economics are very much there, but India-Pakistan relations are always more delicate than just the economics. A plus point of working with Indians is that they have immense knowledge and experience of coal. They have been dealing with over 400 million tons of coal per annum for a number of years. It makes more sense for us to use their expertise instead of having experts from China or anywhere else.”..
http://oilprice.com/Energy/Coal/Pakistan-Bets-on-Underground-Coal-Gasification-to-Help-Relieve-Power-Shortages.html
Here's a News report on Pak energy policy encouraging Thar coal-fired power plant development:
Of course, it was not an easy decision in the context of country’s squeezed financial resources as elaborated by Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf himself while presiding over a recent meeting of Thar Coal and Energy Board at PM Secretariat the other day in which the request of Sindh government for modelling of two Jamshoro plants on coal source was not only accepted but also made the basis of switching the entire thermal generation industry to coal.
During this meeting, the prime minister admitted that, given the financial constraints, it was very difficult to give sovereign guarantees nevertheless he directed the Ministry of Finance to arrange sovereign guarantee for Sindh Engro Coal Mining Company (SECMC), a joint venture of Sindh government and Engro Power Generation, with the sole objective of starting work, without further delay, on coal-based generation. The first two projects include one existing 800MW unit and another new 600MW unit, both located in Jamshoro, Sindh. These two plants would be redesigned and designed, respectively, as per Thar coal specifications and this conversion would be financed by ADB.
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the SECMC and Engro Corporation are working on $1.3 billon integrated coal mining and power project in Thar area. The project covers mining of 6.5 million tonnes of coal and generation of1200 MW power. It is a matter of national pride to note that the Thar lignite (coal) resources of 175 billion tonnes constitute the sixth largest reserve in the world (however, total national coal reserves amount to 185.5 billion tonnes). For sure, these resources present an opportunity for development into a sustainable fossil fuel reserve that has the capability of meeting a large portion of Pakistan’s energy needs.
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Here's an ET report on ADB supporting Thar coal-fired plants development:
KARACHI:
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has dispelled the impression that the bank has some reservations about the viability of Thar coal consumption in power plants, but at the same time it lays stress on the importance of environmental standards and project timelines.
ADB Country Director Werner Liepach highlighted the issues in a meeting between Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah and ADB board of directors at Chief Minister House on Wednesday.
Speaking about the potential of Thar coal, the chief minister said coal was the most feasible fuel for power plants, which were being switched to coal. A new 600-megawatt coal-based power plant is also being set up at Jamshoro with the aim of diversifying the fuel mix and moving away from expensive imported furnace oil...
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Officials of the provincial government told the meeting that international environmental standards would be followed in Thar coal mining. They also said any timing mismatch between conversion of existing power plants into coal and readiness of coalmine at Thar block-II would be covered by Sindh Engro Coal Mining Company through imported coal of Thar specification.
It was agreed that the ADB and Sindh government would work for a better understanding and push ahead with different projects. An amount of $105 million will be extended for such projects.
http://tribune.com.pk/story/456539/adb-says-has-no-reservations-about-thar-coal/
Here's Power Engineering report on Japanese investment in Pak coal power transmission project:
ISLAMABAD, Nov. 3 -- Japan has offered to support Thar Coal power projects and construct transmission line to inter link the project with national grid.
Japanese Ambassador to Pakistan, Hiroshi OE stated this during a meeting with the Federal Minister for Water and Power, Ch. Ahmed Mukhtar here on Thursday.
During the meeting, the Ambassador discussed various matters of mutual interest, energy situation and current political situation.
The Ambassador expressed his views on investment opportunities in Pakistan and observed that the investment environment is better here in Pakistan so that Japanese companies are interested to put their capital in Pakistan in various projects. He also offered to invest in the Mangla Dam power extension project. He assured that Japan would continue its financial and technical support for social sector development. The Ambassador also appreciated the current recovery drive of the Ministry of Water and Power and said that it would help to increase the cash flow for power generation.
The Minister while welcoming the envoy appreciated the Japanese offers and said that the government is taking all possible measures for generation of cheap electricity. He said that the indigenous resources are being utilized for future projects to generate affordable energy. He said that a wind power project would start generation next couple of month while the other wind projects would be completed next year. Mr. Mukhtar also asked the Ambassador to invest in the wind, solar and other hydel power projects.
http://www.power-eng.com/news/2012/11/04/pakistan-japan-offers-to-construct-transmission-line-for-thar-coal-project.html
Here's an ET story on decline in circular debt:
The good news is that circular debt in the energy sector is going down. The bad news is that it is doing so for all the wrong reasons.
Circular debt has now become shorthand for the crippling string of financial liabilities that energy companies owe each other because the federal government fails to live up to its promise to pay out energy subsidies that it announces as vote pleasers. This debt has resulted in a massive cash shortage virtually all along the energy chain and significantly reduced the ability of power companies to operate at full capacity, which in turn causes massive power outages throughout the country, particularly during the summer months of peak demand.
But now at last, it appears that the government is paying out what it owes in subsidy payments. Azfar Naseem and Sateesh Balani, research analysts at Elixir Securities, an investment bank, estimate that total circular debt throughout the energy chain has not only stopped growing, but has shrunk by about Rs137 billion during the first six months of the fiscal year ending June 30, 2013.
Part of this reduction has come from higher subsidy payouts to the energy sector from the finance ministry, which rose to Rs160 billion between July 1 and December 20 of this year, about 5% higher than the net payouts throughout the whole previous fiscal year that ended June 30, 2012.
Another significant chunk came when the government effectively forced the state-owned Oil & Gas Development Company (the largest company in Pakistan by market capitalisation) to buy about Rs82 billion in government bonds meant to clear out the outstanding liabilities. The bonds do not mean that the government has paid out its liability: they just mean that they forced OGDC to pay the rest of the energy chain and promised to pay OGDC back.
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The government was given this fiscal breathing room by the inflow from the United States in the form of $1.1 billion in outstanding dues on account of the Coalition Support Fund. That entire amount, by some accounts coming out of the finance ministry, was spent on power subsidies. Yet the government may well be running out of accounting tricks to patch up the power sector before the elections.
The reason the government has tried to juggle around its scarce cash reserves is because it wants to make sure that the power companies have enough cash to buy the fuel they need to keep the lights on in the country, at least most of the time, in the run-up to the elections, expected around May 2013.
These techniques appear to be having at least some positive impact: the outstanding receivables at Pakistan State Oil, the largest oil retailer in the country, are down by almost 40% to around Rs120 billion. Receivables at Hub Power Company and Kot Addu Power Company (which supplies politically important regions of southern Punjab) are also down substantially....
http://tribune.com.pk/story/485765/energy-crisis-circular-debt-is-going-down-but-not-for-the-right-reasons/
Here's ET on ADB not objecting to Thar coal:
ISLAMABAD:
Engro Corporation President and CEO Muhammad Aliuddin Ansari has stated that the Asian Development Bank (ADB) does not object to financing the switchover of thermal power plants to Thar coal.
“The directors of ADB have met me and the chief minister of Sindh and said that they had no objection to the conversion of power plants to Thar coal and are ready to finance [such projects],” he told The Express Tribune.
The revelation comes on the heels of the Ministry of Water and Power’s claim that the ADB is not ready to finance the conversion of power plants to Thar coal, and that the lending authority would finance power plants that run only on imported coal.
Ansari also said he is ready to travel to Manila along with a delegation from the water and power ministry to meet ADB officials and negotiate a financing deal for such projects.
Ansari recalled that it had been decided in a special board meeting of the Thar Coal Energy Board (TCEB) on October 3, 2012, chaired by the prime minister of Pakistan, that existing oil-based power plants should be modified and redesigned to Thar coal specifications, and that new coal-based plants should also be designed keeping the same specifications in mind.
It was also decided in the meeting that agreements would be signed between power generation companies and the Sindh Engro Coal Mining Company (SECMC) for the supply of coal for an existing 420 megawatt (MW) power plant in Jamshoro, as well as a new 600MW power plant to be built in the same location. These agreements were to be finalised and signed within a week, but never materialised.
Ansari said that Pakistan was facing a circular debt issue due to the poor energy mix employed by generation companies, and that conversion of power plants to run on Thar coal could address this issue. He claimed that Thar held the future of Pakistan, and reiterated that all future power plants should be designed on Thar coal specifications.
“Not only has the fuel mix shifted from gas to furnace oil, the price of furnace oil has increased four times in the last five years. This has increased the furnace oil bill by 461%, whereas power generation through furnace oil has increased by only 79%,” said a handout provided by Engro Corp as part of the interview.
Ansari said that Indonesia and India both held coal reserves that were similar in specification to the coal available in Thar. He remarked that India is expected to become a major market for coal by 2016: it already imports significant quantities to meet its needs....
http://tribune.com.pk/story/498215/engro-says-adb-has-no-objections-to-thar-coal-project/
Here's a report on new investment in coal-fired power plant in Karachi:
Companies from the United Arab Emerites and China have inked an accord to develop the first phase of 500 (4×125) megawatts (MW) power plant at Port Qasim Karachi.
Burj Power, based in UAE, is a development and advisory firm focused on projects in the Middle East, Asia and Africa. Harbin Electric International Co Ltd out of China is the technical partner.
The first plant is expected to become operational by 2016.
The Express Tribune reports that the total investment will be between $650 million and $700 million.
http://www.mining.com/coal-based-power-plants-in-pakistan-get-700-million-investment-89811/
http://tribune.com.pk/story/510774/planning-ahead-uae-company-to-set-up-coal-based-power-plants-in-karachi/
Here's Express Tribune on private sector jumping in to add power generation capacity:
After five years of unbearably long daily power outages, Pakistan’s private sector has had enough: over the next five years, they plan on investing over $14.3 billion in increasing the nation’s power production capacity by nearly 46%, and they are doing so by investing in the cheapest possible sources of electricity.
According to data released by the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) in its 2012 State of the Industry report, private sector firms have already begun work on dozens of projects that would substantially increase the country’s electricity generation capacity. For the purposes of this special report, we include only those projects that are scheduled to be completed by the end of the next administration’s term in 2018.
If the next administration were to do absolutely nothing to prevent or slow down the progress currently being made on projects that are already approved and progressing, Pakistan’s power generation capacity will increase to 34,200 megawatts (MW), compared to the approximately 23,500MW today. Of that increase, more than 80% is coming through private sector initiatives.
Yet it is not just the private sector’s initiative that deserves to be applauded: it is also their foresight. Nearly all of the private sector projects scheduled to come online use the cheapest fuels possible. These firms are scheduled to add about 4,900MW to the nation’s hydroelectric power generating capacity, for example. Another 800MW will be added in terms of gas-fired thermal power plants. And nearly 3,000MW will be added or converted to coal and bagasse (a waste product from sugar manufacturing).
Residents of Karachi should rejoice in particular: the Karachi Electric Supply Company is converting 840MW of oil-fired thermal power stations to coal, which will dramatically increase the country’s only private utility’s ability to generate cheaper electricity. Put simply, this will mean even fewer power outages in Karachi.
The private sector’s focus appears not only towards fuel sources that are cheap, but also easily available. Natural gas, for instance, is possibly the cheapest source electricity, cost an average of Rs4.24 per kilowatt-hour, according to Nepra. But the bulk of the investment is going towards hydroelectricity, which, according to Nepra’s tariff determination, is expected to cost Rs5.43 per unit for the first 12 years of a project’s life, while the debt used to finance the plants is still being paid off, following which the tariff will be reduced to Rs2.47 per unit.
The preference for hydroelectricity has to do with the fact that Pakistan’s natural gas reserves are rapidly being depleted and importing gas is far more difficult than importing coal. Power plants that run on imported coal can produce electricity for an average of Rs10 per unit, according to industry experts, much cheaper than the Rs16 per unit that oil-fired thermal plants cost.
Compared to the $14.3 billion being invested by the private sector, the government is planning to invest just over $2.5 billion over the next five years to upgrade its power infrastructure, which will add about 2,100MW of electricity generating capacity over the next five years, the overwhelming bulk of which will be in thermal power plants that can run on both oil and gas.
The picture, of course, is not completely rosy. Power projects are notorious for not meeting their deadlines so it is possible that the next administration will not see all of these projects come to fruition during its term. But given the private sector’s commitment to solving Pakistan’s energy problems, the least the government can do is not create hurdles in their way. It will only help their own re-election chances.
http://tribune.com.pk/story/532404/energy-power-generation-capacity-expected-to-jump-46-by-2018/
Here's a National Geographic piece on Thar coal development in Pakistan:
The current acute energy crisis in Pakistan, certainly the worst of all times is heating up an indigenous extractive resource scramble in a remote part of Pakistan with unusual demographics. The Tharparker District or simply the Thar Desert located in the southeastern province of Sindh is under spot light because of a 175 billion tons of estimated coal reserves lying beneath its surface. These reserves have been known for around two decades, but only recently has development gained momentum to generate power in order to propel the country’s ailing economy. The signs of a resource boom are already animating the dull landscape of the region – roads, airports, site offices, power lines, guest houses and rising real estate price are evident. Near the town of Islamkot, an underground coal gassification pilot project represents the scale of possible change where workers sourced from local communities rest their heads after long-hour shifts.
Understanding the quandary faced by the residents of the Thar Desert took me to several villages situated in the vicinity of the coal fields to gather some basic ethnographic data on community perceptions of the project. Tharparker is home to around 1.5 million people stretching its boundaries with Indian Rajasthan and the Great Ran of Kutch salt marsh. The indigenous communities of Menghwar, Kolhi and Bheel make up a large part of the rural human settlement. The land is famous for rippling sand dunes, distinct folklore, rain-starved shrubs, drying wells, bottomed indicators of health, poverty and education and the most food insecure district in the country. One of the villages Mauakharaj of Tharparker, just beside an airport being built to host coal companies, has abject poverty and deprivation. The whole village is culturally and socially crippled because of fluorosis; a disease caused by consumption of excessive fluoride in groundwater, with no remedy and still people compelled to use it.
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The conversation did not lead to consensus on what approach should be dominant but there was a agreement that Thar coal development should not be a first resort but much further down the priority scale for addressing Pakistan’s energy crisis. As Pakistan’s election approaches, energy is a ballot issue and polemics are rife on panacea solutions. It is high time that Pakistanis consider their energy predicament with a multifaceted strategy that transcends petty nationalism so that communal harmony is not compromised for short-term and inefficient power solutions.
http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2013/05/02/pakistan-coal/
Here's an Express Tribune report on Islamic Development Bank (IDB) funding for energy projects in Pakistan:
The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) ) on Monday announced its commitment for $850 million support for development projects in Pakistan.
According to a release, the support was announced as a five member IDB delegation headed by the institution’s vice president Birama Boubacar Sidibe called on Finance Minister Ishaq Dar in Islamabad on Monday.
Sidibe said that the IDB was prepared to disburse $850 million dollars in addition to the 750 million Euros in support and the $150 million in trade assistance it had approved and started paying in August. The fresh project assistance to Pakistan will be provided over the next three years.
The IDB VP informed Dar that he expects project Pakistan plans to undertake in future would make IDB one of its largest operations. “Your priority is our priority” said Sidibe.
In addition to the financial assistance, Sidibe said that the IDB was also ready to constitute consortiums for financing projects in Pakistan.
The finance minister said that Pakistan looks forward to stronger and better economic relations with IDB in the future.
Sidibe added that Pakistan is an important member country of the IDB. He added that Pakistan’s support of the agency had played some part in helping it secure a AAA ranking from international rating agencies.
Dar briefed the delegation on status of ongoing power projects in Pakistan including the 969 MW Nelum Jhehum Hydropower Project which the IDB is financing. The finance minister hoped that the project, whose cost had tripled due to neglect of the previous government, would be completed by 2016.
Similarly, work on the 425/525 MW Nanidpur Project, which had been delayed for over three years, had been started in full swing.
Additionally, Dar said that the government is working to add 10,000 MW of generation into the national grid and is presently working on the 2117 MW Karachi coastal project and 6600MW coal fired thermal Project in Gadani. He added that the government was also working on the parallel projects of Diamer Basha Dam and the Dasu Project.
http://tribune.com.pk/story/602260/idb-extends-850-million-project-support-to-pakistan/
Here's an ET report on ADB financing for Jamshoro coal-fired 1200 MW power plant:
Despite opposition by the United States (US), the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a $900-million loan for converting the Jamshoro Power Plant to a coal-fired one, giving a boost to the government’s efforts to improve the energy mix.
According to sources, hectic diplomatic efforts, launched by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, saved the day for Pakistan after the US had indicated its opposition to the deal to the ADB’s Board of Directors. The US cast its vote against Pakistan, the sources said.
However, Canada, Germany, Australia, New Zealand and Japan cast their votes in favour of Pakistan.
The loan was approved by the ADB Board of Directors, according to Ministry of Finance. The project will have an installed capacity of 1,320 megawatts (MW) and will add 1,200 to the national grid.
The new plant will generate electricity at a lower cost, saving about $535 million per year on fuel imports compared to oil-fired power plants.
Three-fourth of the board voted in favour of the loan, the finance ministry said. Dar also thanked the ADB and countries that supported Pakistan’s proposal, it added.
The previous government had initiated the process of converting and running the power plant on imported coal.
However, the PML-N government plans to construct coal power plants at Gadani with a total capacity of 6,600 MW as part of its policy of producing electricity on cheaper fuels like coal, Dar stated.
According to the ADB, out of the total sum of $900 million, an amount of $870 million will be at a higher interest rate while $30 million will be at a concessional one. The Islamic Development Bank will also provide $150 million, while $450 million will be arranged by the government, to meet the total estimated project cost of $1.5 billion. The ADB said that project is expected to be completed by December 2018.
While the ADB approves the loan, the Pakistani authorities have yet to sort out the actual price. After the Ministry of Water and Power overestimated it at $2 billion (Rs220 billion), the federal government had constituted a committee to review the cost, which had originally been estimated at $1.5 billion (Rs165 billion).
The ADB said that in order to address environmental concerns, it will employ state-of-the-art emission control equipment resulting in cleaner emissions than the existing heavy fuel oil-fired generators and subcritical boiler technology which is more commonly used.
Before approving the loan, the ADB had pressed Pakistan to agree to using imported bituminous coal for 80% of the plants fuel requirement, and Thar coal which is lignite and has a low heating capacity for the remaining 20%.
http://tribune.com.pk/story/643373/power-through-adb-approves-funds-for-jamshoro-plant/
Post-2000, the awkward, inconvenient truth is that, particularly during the regime of retired General Pervez Musharraf and former chief minister Arbab Ghulam Rahim, the physical infrastructure of Tharparkar reached an unprecedented level of progress.
Where, for example, in previous times, only about two kilometres of metalled road was built in a whole year, roads of the same length and more were built every month, and in even less time, for several years.
Grid electricity to main towns, water pipelines to large settlements, preparatory infrastructure for exploitation of coal reserves including work by the post-2008 PPP government, rapid proliferation of telecommunication and mobile phones have vastly enhanced mobility, access and information flow. http://www.dawn.com/news/1091961/tharparkar-a-famine-of-facts
Here's a News report on Pak Army mobilizing to help Tharparkar victims:
To help the affected population in Mithi and Tharparker, relief teams of the Pakistan Army have reached the area and have setup a Field Hospital and are also providing Food Packs to the affected families.
According to an ISPR press release, Doctors and Paramedics have established a field hospital to provide healthcare to the malnourished and sick at Diplo. On the first day of the relief operation, 10 tons of relief items were distributed and a total of 613 patients were treated at the medical camp.
General Officer Commanding Hyderabad Garrison, Major General Inam is in the area to oversee the ongoing relief efforts.
Panu Aqil and Karachi garrisons are also gearing up to reinforce relief activities with the help of civil society. Relief camps will also be established at Mithi, Chachhro, Nangarparker, Islamkot and Khinsar. The support will continue till the time crisis situation is normalized.
http://www.thenews.com.pk/article-140421-Army-establish-field-hospital-in-drought-hit-Tharparkar
Sindh experts say the area is virtually ruled by the Makhdoom family and four sons of Makhdoom Amin Fahim, the senior PPP leader, are directly involved and responsible. In the Sindh government, all the four sons hold key positions.
Makhdoom Jamil Zaman is the provincial minister for relief and revenue. Makhdoom Aqil Zaman held the post of Tharparkar deputy commissioner until two days ago. Before him, six months ago, it was Makhdoom Shakil, another son, who held the position of district management for three consecutive years. Amin Fahim’s another son, Makhdoom Khalil Zaman, is a member of the Sindh Assembly (MPA) from the same district.
It is also a fact that the Makhdoom family holds widespread spiritual following in most parts of Tharparkar. But they have been found negligent and the latest crisis has proved that. Makhdoom Aqil was transferred only after the tragic death of children came to the light.
Makhdoom Jamil, the Relief and Revenue minister, is responsible for supplying relief to the affected areas. He reportedly does not take interest in the affairs of his ministry and has never even attended his office, insiders told The News. Also when the news of Tharparkar broke out, he did not take any action for any measure for relief.
http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-13-29029-Zardari-summons-Qaim-to-Dubai-over-Thar
Here's a Dawn report on additional $400m from ADB for energy projects in Pakistan on top of $900m for coal power at Jamshoro:
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved $400 million loan to help Pakistan carry out reforms for overcoming power shortages.
An agreement in this regard was signed by Secretary Economic Affairs Division Nargis Sethi and ADB's Country Director for Pakistan Werner E. Liepach here on Monday. Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and ADB's Governor witnessed the signing ceremony.
“The ADB has approved a soft and concessionary loan for Pakistan, which has the best terms and conditions with interest rate of even less than 2 per cent annually,” said Ishaq Dar.
He said the ADB had also recently approved a loan of $900 million for Jamshoro coal power project to produce cheaper electricity.
Speaking on the occasion, Werner E. Liepach said the loan would support key reforms in the energy sector to ensure uninterrupted supply of cheaper and dependable power to millions of industrial and private consumers, who were presently adversely affected by long power outages.
“This important energy sector assistance will propel growth, boost businesses, and create jobs that are critical to reduce poverty in the country,” said Liepach.
In line with Pakistan's National Power Policy approved in 2013, the sustainable energy sector reform programme targets robust policy, capacity development and institutional strengthening action to reduce crippling power shortages that according to estimates, are costing the country about 2 per cent of its GDP growth every year.
The ADB along with Japan and the World Bank have been working with the Pakistan government to formulate and implement a five-year plan targeting increased power supply, reduction of losses and boosting the efficiency of the power sector.
The programme would support government's plans to rationalise tariffs and eliminate subsidies by 2016, except for low income customers.
“The reforms will improve transparency and accountability, which will also go a long way in leveraging stronger private sector led investments in the power sector,” said Werner Liepach.
The full programme, set to complete by June 2018, spans a total of $1.2 billion investment by the ADB, and for the first sub-programme, co-financing is expected from Japan with $49 million and the World Bank with $600 million.
The ADB is the lead development partner in Pakistan's energy sector supporting a wide range of power sector development activities, including energy efficiency, transmission, distribution, cross-border natural gas pipelines, power generation, and renewable energy projects.
The ADB, based in Manila, is dedicated to reducing poverty in Asia and the Pacific through inclusive economic growth, environmentally sustainable growth, and regional integration. Established in 1966, it is owned by 67 members – 48 from the region.
In 2013, ADB assistance totalled $21 billion, including co-financing of $6.6 billion.
http://www.dawn.com/news/1102852/adb-approves-400mn-loan-to-boost-pakistans-energy-sector
LONDON (Alliance News) - Oracle Coalfields PLC Thursday said it has signed a engineering procurement and construction agreement in Beijing with SEPCO Electric Power Construction Corp for the construction of an integrated coal mine and power plant.
SEPCO is a power and construction group in China.
Oracle Coalfields, which is a developer of a lignite coal mine located in the south eastern Sindh Province in Pakistan, said the construction of the integrated coal mine and power plant is a major milestone in the development of the Block VI project in the Thar Coalfields.
Through its local coal mining subsidiary Sindh Carbon Energy Ltd, Oracle owns the mining lease for Block VI in Thar Coalfield, for the mining of lignite coal. Oracle plans to develop the mine and to sell coal to a new created company, provisionally called Electric Power Ltd, at an integrated power station next to the mine.
Oracle said that SEPCO has also proposed a financing structure to potentially securitise up to 85% of the cost of the two EPC contracts, which would be provided by Sinosure, the China Export & Credit Insurance Corp, and some Chinese banks.
The EPC contract is for a 4.2 million tonnes per year coal mine and the 600 megawatt power plant.
The combined EPC transaction value is around USD1.3 billion, Oracle said.
The EPC framework agreement confirms SEPCO's intention to purchase minority equity interests in Electric Power and to potentially make an investment in Sindh Carbon Energy Ltd, Oracle said.
"Entering the EPC Framework Agreement with and receiving a financing proposal from one of China's largest state-owned enterprises in the energy sector is another step towards bringing the project to reality. Both SEPCO and Oracle are eager to succeed in the development of our integrated coal mine and power plant project and to play an effective role in addressing Pakistan's energy crisis," said Oracle Chief Executive Shahrukh Khan in a statement.
http://www.lse.co.uk/AllNews.asp?code=2mspz9ic&headline=Oracle_Coalfields_Inks_Pakistan_Framework_Deal_With_Chinas_SEPCO
Pakistan’s first LNG terminal is finally on track to come onstream by early 2015, but whether the country can afford LNG imports is still in doubt, according to analysts.
Houston-based Excelerate Energy has agreed to install an FSRU off the coast near Port Qasim by the end of Q1 next year, which it will lease to Pakistan for 15 years, Daniel Bustos, Excelerate’s chief development officer, told Interfax.
Meanwhile, Pakistani conglomerate Engro Corp. is laying the pipelines and other infrastructure needed to deliver the LNG into the market, under an LNG service deal it reached with state distributor Sui Southern Gas Co. earlier this year.
In addition, consultancy FGE was appointed in September to advise the government in negotiations for “viable and competitive” LNG supplies.
These agreements have given the project considerable momentum following years of corruption scandals and other setbacks.
“Previously, the government always tried to get the supply before putting the terminal in place, and that brought delays over and over again,” said Bustos.
“What they’re doing now is running the process in parallel, but they started with the terminal. The big advantage of that is that when the suppliers see the terminal is a reality, they get more aggressive in dealing with the customers and are more willing to close a deal,” he added.
The FSRU will have the capacity to store 151,000 cubic metres and import 3.5 mtpa, or 11.3 million cubic metres per day (MMcm/d). According to Engro, the volume would reduce Pakistan’s gas shortfall of 45.3 MMcm/d by 25%.
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Domestic output – the country’s only source of gas at present – declined from a 10-year peak of 41.2 billion cubic metres in 2012 to 38.6 bcm in 2013, according to statistics from BP.
The need for more gas could underpin the development of a second terminal close behind the Excelerate FSRU, Bustos said. Local news reports in September said Sui Southern Gas planned to issue a tender within weeks for a 5.7 MMcm/d regasification facility.
“It’s a market that has tremendous possibilities to grow,” said Bustos. “Pakistan is following in the path of Argentina and Brazil in terms of continuing to add units – once they start seeing the benefits of FSRUs, they keep going back to the same concept.”
Credit problems
While the terminal’s development appears to be moving ahead, it is harder to discern any progress in the government’s LNG supply negotiations – although the finance minister said it is looking to secure the full 3.5 mtpa.
Islamabad has been in discussions with Qatar over the past few years, but the seller’s demand for a high oil-linked price was reportedly an issue when the two sides met in July.
There have also been suggestions Pakistan is beginning talks with Malaysia’s Petronas, which is expanding its large Bintulu LNG complex.
However, Pakistan’s ability to sign deals for long- or short-term LNG is questionable, particularly because the country’s credit risk would require it to pay more than already high Asian LNG prices.
“As a marketer of spot LNG, your main concern is your buyer’s creditworthiness, and we’ve seen other credit-insecure LNG buyers such as Argentina having to pay for cargoes with cash in advance – that precedent is already set,” said Benjamin Gage, an associate director of global LNG at IHS.
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“The project will be subject to scrutiny and it will be closely watched, particularly in the context of intensified pressure on the government over its record of attracting investment and bolstering energy security, and as opposition parties seek to seize on opportunities to weaken government credibility,” said Fry.
http://interfaxenergy.com/gasdaily/article/13770/momentum-builds-behind-troubled-pakistan-lng
ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) -- Shanghai Electric Power signed an agreement with government regarding Thar coal power project on Friday. Federal Minster of Power and Energy Khawaja Asif said that the project worth 2 billion dollars with will bring 1320 Megawatt (Mw) which will be charged at an initial tariff of 8 rupee per unit, reported Dunya News.
Talking at the occasion, Federal Minster of Power and Energy Khawaja Asif said that Thar coal power project is a vital part of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). The project, costing 2 billion dollars, will be completed in 2018. He said that project will bring 1320 Mw which will be charged an initial tariff of 8 rupee per unit.
Federal Minster of Power and Energy said that LNG is being supplied to the power plants.
http://dunyanews.tv/index.php/en/Pakistan/294557-Shanghai-Electric-Power-govt-sign-Thar-coal-power
#China, #Pakistan ink $2 billion deal to build massive #coal power plant in Sindh - The Economic Times #CPEC #Energy http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/business/china-pakistan-ink-2-billion-deal-to-build-power-plant-in-sindh/articleshow/50273768.cms …
BEIJING: China and Pakistan today signed a $2 billion agreement to jointly build a massive coal- fired power station in Pakistan's southern Sindh province.
The project will cost in excess R$2 billion, including the exploitation of a 3.8-million-tonne coal mine and the construction of a 660,000-kilowatt power station near the mine, China's state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
China will contribute USD 800 million to the financing, while the Pakistani partners will provide $500 million, mainly through China Development Bank and Habib Bank.
The project is expected to be completed by the end of 2017, and it will be the first such project in the China- Pakistan Economic Corridor.
The corridor will be a 3,000-kms long network of roads, railways and energy infrastructure between the ports of Gwadar in Pakistan and Kashgar in China's Xinjiang.
It was established to help lift Pakistan out of its economic slumber and boost growth for the Chinese ..
Chinese-backed coal excavation and power plants will displace thousands of people and deplete groundwater in Thar, a region ravaged by drought.
The Thar desert in Sindh province contains 175 billion tonnes of lignite coal – one of the largest untapped coal deposits in the world. It is also one of the most populated deserts in the world – home to world heritages sites and endangered species. Most of the 1.6 million people who live in the Thar desert region live in poverty and are highly vulnerable to extreme weather events. Twenty five percent of people live within the proposed coal development area. They thought they would benefit, but that has not been the case.
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It was only in 2015 that work began on the fields, when the Thar coal project was included as part of a string of energy and infrastructure deals signed under the USD 46 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. These agreements included eight coal-fired power plants and a 3,000-kilometre network of roads, railways and pipelines to transport oil and gas from Gwadar Port on the Arabian sea to Kashgar, in the northwestern Chinese province of Xinjiang.
In December 2015, China approved a USD 1.2 billion investment for surface mining of Thar coal and the establishment of 660 MW power projects. The deposits are divided into 12 blocks, each containing 2 billion tonnes of coal. In the first phase the Sindh provincial government has allocated block II to Sindh Engro Coal Mining Company (SECMC) to excavate 1.57 billion tonnes of coal and build a 660 megawatt power plant. The plant is expected to send power to the Pakistani national grid by June 2019 and will later be expanded to produce 1,320 MW of power.
A state-owned Chinese company, the China Machinery & Engineering Corporation, is providing the machinery and technical support for the excavation of coal and building and running the power plant. The local company will provide human resources, management and be responsible for the distribution of power. SECMC say the project has created 200 technical jobs and 1,600 menial positions. But locals have been protesting that the company has not even given them the menial jobs. Around 300 Chinese, including the engineers, miners and experts are also working on the site.
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The Chinese team have started excavating the first pit. In the first phase SECMC will relocate five villages, which are located in block II, including Thario Halepoto village.
SECMC has started paying villagers for their homes and agricultural land. SECMC’s chief executive officer, Shamsuddin Ahmed Shaikh, claims that his company will do all they can to help the villagers.
“We will construct model towns with all basic facilities including schools, healthcare, drinking water and filter plants and also allocate land for livestock grazing,” he told thethirdpole.net
He said that the company is paying villagers above market prices for their land – PKR 185,000 (USD 1,900) per acre. However locals say this price does not take into account its high environmental value and they do not want to be relocated to the new towns, the exact location of which is yet to be decided.
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A SECMC official said that the company will plant 10 trees for every tree cut. So far the company has planted 12,000 trees in an 18 acre area called the Green Park and more trees will be planted in next two years.
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SECMC’s Shaikh rejected such claims saying his company would only use 1,400 acres for two reservoirs to store the water extracted during excavation. “It will be natural underground saline water, not toxic or poisonous in any way and it will not affect any village,” he claimed.
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http://thewire.in/62053/pakistans-coal-expansion-brings-misery-to-villagers-in-thar-desert/
https://vimeo.com/179874726
Thar Revisited:
Last week I had the chance to visit Thar again after more than a decade. While it remains an extremely poor and least developed region of the province of Sindh, I was struck by a few changes that have the potential of transforming the region into a vibrant economic player. Water is the most basic need in a desert. Last time round, I observed that Thardeep, a rural support organisation that has worked in the area since the early nineties, had achieved some success in improving provision and quality of drinking water in selected areas. Traditional birth attendants, some dispensaries and a few “barefoot” doctors was all that it could manage in the field of health. It also ran a number of schools. Linkages between craftswomen and middlemen from the market were few and far between. Government presence was minimal. The district hospital in Mithi was a mess. Roads were almost nonexistent.
Fast forward to August 2016. The road from Karachi to Thatta is a shame and Thatta to Thar via Badin is tolerable. Enter Thar and it is a different world. The main road here is probably the best highway of Sindh. It leads to coal mining areas, power stations and the gasification plant. Coal mining is a joint venture of the Government of Sindh and ENGRO, subcontracted further to a concern named Bilal. There is no knowing whether usable coal will eventually be available to the power plant being constructed next door. The coal gasification plant is no more than a monument to our atomic veteran.
The impact of the road, augmented by mobile connectivity, is multidimensional. Walking long distances has given way to motorbikes and overloaded buses have taken the place of kekras, the rickety shuttle truck-bus of the World War II vintage. Children suffering from malnutrition and other ailments are reported directly to the media as well as the hospital in Mithi on mobile phones. The high numbers of the suffering children had always existed; only the media was late in discovering these cases. The media attention did bring politicians and bureaucrats to the region, facilitated of course by the road. The hospital in Mithi is now much better staffed and well-stocked with medicines. It is now a thriving town with a good number of schools and a college. Even an English-medium private school was in evidence. A sub-campus of a university is also coming up. Locals complained about the lack of girls schools, especially at the post-primary level. This is a sign of growing awareness. There was also frustration that the locals are not given the party tickets for the National and Provincial assembly seats. Mobile connectivity and the road have linked the famous craftswomen of Thar with the main markets much more effectively. At a community meeting in Islam Kot, women were quoting prices that broadly corresponded with the prices charged in Karachi’s Zeb un Nisa Street.
Another change is the large number of government buildings, most of them left incomplete. Many that are completed, are uninhabited. Those complete and inhabited are poorly maintained. The tourist complex built at the legendary Marvi well is a case in point. A beautiful tourist complex in Nagar Parkar, designed by friend Arif Hasan, funded by Sindh’s Planning and Development Department and managed by Thardeep is another case in point.
At the end of the day, there may or may not be good quality coal or power, but the very presence of the road is rapidly opening up the area. As for power, the people are beginning to learn that the best off-grid solution is the sun that shines over Thar most of the time. I, though, had the good fortune of witnessing rains and greenery in a desert — an exhilarating experience.
http://tribune.com.pk/story/1169946/thar-revisited/
This Mile-Wide Hole Could Revolutionize #Pakistan's #Economy - Bloomberg #Thar #Coal #energy
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-03-21/coal-addiction-spreads-as-chinese-workers-dig-in-pakistan-desert
In the dusty scrub of the Thar desert, Pakistan has begun to dig up one of the world’s largest deposits of low-grade, brown, dirty coal to fuel new power stations that could revolutionize the country’s economy.
The project is one of the most expensive among an array of ambitious energy developments that China is helping the country to build as part of a $55 billion economic partnership. A $3.5 billion joint venture between the neighbors will extract coal to generate 1.3 gigawatts of electricity that will be sent across the country on a new $3 billion transmission network.
“When I came it was a mess. There was nothing here,” said Dileep Kumar, one of the first mining engineers at lead contractor Sindh Engro Coal Mining Co., standing atop the mile-wide hole in the earth, busy with yellow trucks and diggers on the floor below. “Now look at it. This wasn’t possible without the Chinese.”
On paper, Pakistan could be one of Asia’s top economies, with almost 200 million people spread over an area twice the size of California, from the ice-bound peaks of the Karakorum to the warm, dry shores of the Arabian Sea. But it remains hobbled by corruption, political turmoil, terrorism and poverty, all underpinned by a crippling shortage of energy.
The country has natural gas reserves, four nuclear-power stations and the world’s largest dam. Some 700 kilometers north of the Thar mine another Chinese company is helping build a solar farm eight times the size of New York’s Central Park. Yet power outages remain a way of life with blackouts of 12 hours or more even in Karachi and Islamabad. By one estimate, the shortage of electricity is wiping 2 percentage points off economic growth every year.
Thirst for energy is taking Pakistan in the opposite direction of Western countries that are trying to reduce coal power, or use cleaner-burning fuel and technologies. Germany, which still relies on coal-fired stations for two fifths of its electricity, has promised to switch half of them off by 2030.
Pakistan by contrast relies on coal for just 0.1 percent of its power, according to the Pakistan Business Council. The Thar projects and others could see that jump to 24 percent by 2020, according to Tahir Abbas, analyst at Karachi-based brokerage Arif Habib Ltd.
Pakistan’s coal reserves would give the nation a cheap domestic alternative to expensive oil and gas imports. The nation spends about $8 billion a year on imported petroleum and is one of the region’s biggest buyers of liquefied natural gas.
In an effort to curb the import bill and meet demand for power, Pakistan plans to dig up some of the world’s biggest known deposits of lignite, a lower-grade brown coal. But first, it must clear 160 meters of sand to get to the coal.
On a flat, arid plain, separated from a hot cerulean sky by a thin line of spindly scrub, yellow-edged containers sit neatly around paved quadrangles. In the centre of each, a lumpy circle of green turf, irrigated by a hosepipe, provides some respite from the dust and heat.
#Pakistan to build 15,300 MW of #coal power. #Indian co building 38,000 MW coal power in #India & #Bangladesh #CPEC
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/01/climate/china-energy-companies-coal-plants-climate-change.html
When China halted plans for more than 100 new coal-fired power plants this year, even as President Trump vowed to “bring back coal” in America, the contrast seemed to confirm Beijing’s new role as a leader in the fight against climate change.
But new data on the world’s biggest developers of coal-fired power plants paints a very different picture: China’s energy companies will make up nearly half of the new coal generation expected to go online in the next decade.
These Chinese corporations are building or planning to build more than 700 new coal plants at home and around the world, some in countries that today burn little or no coal, according to tallies compiled by Urgewald, an environmental group based in Berlin. Many of the plants are in China, but by capacity, roughly a fifth of these new coal power stations are in other countries.
Over all, 1,600 coal plants are planned or under construction in 62 countries, according to Urgewald’s tally, which uses data from the Global Coal Plant Tracker portal. The new plants would expand the world’s coal-fired power capacity by 43 percent.
In China, concerns over smog and climate change have prompted a move toward renewables, as have slowing economic growth and a gradual shift in the Chinese economy away from heavy manufacturing and toward consumer industries. The addition of domestic capacity, though large on paper, does not mean there will be growth in coal consumption. The current coal plants are operating far below capacity because demand for coal-generated power has slowed considerably.
But overseas, the Chinese are playing a different game.
Shanghai Electric Group, one of the country’s largest electrical equipment makers, has announced plans to build coal power plants in Egypt, Pakistan and Iran with a total capacity of 6,285 megawatts — almost 10 times the 660 megawatts of coal power it has planned in China.
The China Energy Engineering Corporation, which has no public plans to develop coal power in China, is building 2,200 megawatts’ worth of coal-fired power capacity in Vietnam and Malawi. Neither company responded to requests for comment.
Of the world’s 20 biggest coal plant developers, 11 are Chinese, according to a database published by Urgewald.
Some of the countries targeted for coal-power expansion, like Egypt or Pakistan, currently burn almost no coal, and the new coal plants could set the course of their national energy policies for decades, environmentalists warn.
In Egypt, coal projects by Shanghai Electric and other global developers are set to bring the country’s coal-fired capacity to 17,000 megawatts, from near zero, according to the Urgewald database.
Pakistan’s coal capacity is set to grow to 15,300 megawatts from 190. In Malawi, planned coal projects would bring its coal-fired capacity to 3,500 megawatts from zero.
Chinese companies are not the only drivers of the global coal expansion.
The world’s single largest coal-plant developer is India’s National Thermal Power Corporation, which plans to build more than 38,000 megawatts of new coal capacity in India and Bangladesh. The corporation did not respond to an email query.
In #Pakistan's #coal rush, some #women drivers break cultural barriers. #Hindu #Thar #energy #Sindh
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-pakistan-women-drivers/in-pakistans-coal-rush-some-women-drivers-break-cultural-barriers-idUSKCN1C41PL
As Pakistan bets on cheap coal in the Thar desert to resolve its energy crisis, a select group of women is eyeing a road out of poverty by snapping up truck-driving jobs that once only went to men.
Such work is seen as life-changing in this dusty southern region bordering India, where sand dunes cover estimated coal reserves of 175 billion tonnes and yellow dumper trucks swarm like bees around Pakistan’s largest open-pit mine.
The imposing 60-tonne trucks initially daunted Gulaban, 25, a housewife and mother of three from Thar’s Hindu community inside the staunchly conservative and mainly-Muslim nation of 208 million people.
“At the beginning I was a bit nervous but now it’s normal to drive this dumper,” said Gulaban, clad in a pink saree, a traditional cloth worn by Hindu women across South Asia.
Gulaban - who hopes such jobs can help empower other women facing grim employment prospects - is among 30 women being trained to be truck drivers by Sindh Engro Coal Mining Company (SECMC), a Pakistani firm digging up low-grade coal under the rolling Thar sand dunes.
Gulaban has stolen the march on her fellow trainees because she was the only woman who knew how to drive a car before training to be a truck driver. She is an inspiration to her fellow students.
“If Gulaban can drive a dump truck then why not we? All we need to do is learn and drive quickly like her,” said Ramu, 29, a mother of six, standing beside the 40-tonne truck.
Until recently, energy experts were uncertain that Pakistan’s abundant but poor-quality coal could be used to fire up power plants.
That view began to change with new technology and Chinese investment as part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a key branch of Beijing’s Belt and Road initiative to connect Asia with Europe and Africa.
Now coal, along with hydro and liquefied natural gas, is at the heart of Pakistan’s energy plans.
SECMC, which has about 125 dump trucks ferrying earth out of the pit mine, estimates it will need 300-400 trucks once they burrow deep enough to reach the coal.
Drivers can earn up to 40,000 rupees ($380) a month.
Women aspiring to these jobs are overcoming cultural barriers in a society where women are restricted to mainly working the fields and cooking and cleaning for the family. Only this week in Saudi Arabia, a close ally of Pakistan, women were granted permission to drive for the first time ever, ending a ban that was supported by conservative clerics but seen by rights activists as an emblem of suppression.
Gulaban’s husband, Harjilal, recalled how people in Thar would taunt him when his “illiterate” wife drove their small car.
Coal Power in Pakistan.... Source: Wikipedia
Pakistan has an installed electricity generation capacity of 33,836 MW in 2018.[4] Furnace oil (16 percent), hydel (27 percent), Natural gas (12 percent), LNG (26 percent), Coal (9 percent), Renewable (Solar & Wind 5 percent) and nuclear (5 per cent) are the principal sources.
In Service
Station Location Capacity (MW) Status
Lakhra Power Plant Jamshoro, Sindh 150 Operational.
Sitara Chemical Industries Ltd Faisalabad, Punjab 40 Operational since 2016.
Fauji Fertilizer Power Plant Karachi, Sindh 118 Operational since 2017.
Sahiwal Coal Power Project Sahiwal, Punjab 1320 Operational since 2017.
Maple Leaf Power Ltd Mianwali, Punjab 40 Operational since 2017.
Port Qasim Coal Power Project Karachi, Sindh 1320 Operational since 2017.
DG Cement Coal Power Project DG Khan, Punjab 30 Operational since 2017.
Hub Coal Power Project Hub, Balochistan 1320 Operational since 2018.
Engro Powergen Thar Pvt Ltd Tharparkar, Sindh 660 Operational since 2019.
Under Construction and Proposed
Station Location Capacity (MW) Notes
Thar Energy Ltd Tharparkar, Sindh 330 Under construction. To be operational by Mar 2021.[9]
Lucky Electric Power Karachi, Sindh 660 Under construction. To be operational by Mar 2021.[10]
ThalNova Power Pvt Ltd Tharparkar, Sindh 330 Under construction. To be operational by Jun 2021.[11]
Siddiqsons Energy Ltd Tharparkar, Sindh 330 Under construction. To be operational by Jun 2021.[10]
Gwadar Coal Power Project Gwadar, Balochistan 300 LOI issued.[12][12]
K-Electric Coal Power Project Karachi, Sindh 700 LOI issued.[13]
Why is Pakistan opening up new coal power plants, even as the world says goodbye to coal?
https://www.dawn.com/news/1490134
In April, the 1,320MW coal power plant in Sahiwal in Punjab province, the first energy project under CPEC built by China Huaneng Shandong Rui Group, was on the brink of closure after the government was unable to pay the PKR 20 billion power (USD 127 million) of charges it owed the developer.
In May, the 1,320MW Port Qasim power plant in Karachi, jointly developed by PowerChina and Qatar’s Al Mirqab Capital, also hit financial difficulties just a year after operations began due to rising debt and the soaring cost of imported coal. Its chairman told media that his company was facing the challenge “payment of arrears” to the tune of PKR 21 billion (USD 133 million).
two more plants using imported coal are coming up this year. China Power Hub Generation Company’s 1,320MW coal plant in Hub, Balochistan province, will start commercial production by August this year. Another 1,320MW plant is being set up at Jamshoro, in Sindh, using 80pc imported coal and 20pc local Thar lignite. In addition, two more 330MW coal-fired are being developed in Thar Block II using indigenous coal by Engro Powergen Thar and the China Machinery Engineering Corporation. Coal from the Thar desert – one of the largest untapped coal deposits in the world – may be cheaper than imported coal, but it is a particularly dirty type of coal with low energy content. This means a higher quantity of coal needs to be burnt to produce power, which means more carbon emissions.
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he government has taken some positive steps to increase the role of renewables in its energy mix, recently reversing a three-year-old ban on investing in solar and wind placed by its predecessor. The Alternative Energy Policy 2019 has been finalised and should be approved in a few months, said Qasim. “[The policy] states that as much as 30pc electricity generation capacity will be from solar and wind and in the next five years as we aim to install 18,000MW,” he added.
#Shanghai Electric celebrates 27 years of commitment in #Pakistan in thermal power, nuclear power, and Power Transmission and Distribution under the umbrella of the #China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (#CPEC). #electricity #energy #power #industry #economy https://www.worldcoal.com/power/27052020/shanghai-electric-celebrates-27-years-of-commitment-in-pakistan/
Shanghai Electric is now celebrating the 27th anniversary of its entering Pakistan markets since 1993. Yesterday was itself a related anniversary, making 69 years since China established diplomatic relations with Pakistan. Shanghai Electric, representing the first batch of Chinese companies entering the market, has generated a string of milestone projects in categories that include thermal power, nuclear power, and Power Transmission and Distribution under the umbrella of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (the CPEC).
Thar Integrated Coal Mine-Power Project: Shanghai Electric signed the EPC contract for a block coal-fired power station project in Thar Coalfield, Pakistan, in December 2016. In April 2019 Shanghai Electric signed another EPC contract for Thar Block-1 Integrated Coal Mine-Power Project with an installed capacity of 2 x 660MW and a coal mine with an annual coal production capacity of 7.8 million t. The project is capable of powering 4 million households in Pakistan with 1320 MW of indigenous, affordable and reliable electricity.
Shanghai electric is also applying ultra-supercritical technology, which can run at higher net efficiency than the annual average net efficiency required by Pakistani government. Additionally, the plants will operate with a high Acid Gas removal rate, with low sulfur dioxide emissions to reduce environmental impact when it begins to generate electricity in 2022.
Sahiwal 2 x 660 MW thermal power plant project: Shanghai Electric was commissioned to provide steam turbines, generators and auxiliary equipment for Sahiwal 2 x 660 MW coal fired power station, the contract for which was signed in June 2015. Shanghai electric reduced the production time to 12 months by leveraging the new mode of the steam turbine designed with supercritical cylinder, with the generator stator iron centre, coil and shaft tile optimisation further improving the efficiency of the plant.
First HVDC transmission line tested with full load of 4,000MW
https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/878333-first-hvdc-transmission-line-tested-with-full-load-of-4-000mw
Dubbed as flagship China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project, 660kV Matiari-Lahore HVDC Line is the largest ever transmission sector project of the country in terms of its capacity as well as one of the longest in distance, connecting power generation units in the south with load centers upcountry.
“The HVDC line transcends a geographical length of about 900 km, marking the start of an era of long-distance power transmission in the country,” said an official of National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC).
“It is a unique project in the sense that it introduces HVDC technology for the first time in the national grid, enriching the technology mix of the grid.”
The official added that the trial operation was being carried out through NTDC transmission system.
“The Project has a design capacity of 4,000MW and will help evacuate power from cheaper Southern coal power plants and deliver it to load centers in the North of the country.”
Above all, the official said, the ongoing trial operation of the transmission line helped in contributing the record highest power transmitted on August 11, 2021 at 24,467 MW through the national grid.
“In 2020, peak load sustained by the national grid was 23,370MW for one day and in 2018 it was just 20,811 MW. With the launching of HVDC Matiari-Lahore Transmission Project, power dispersal capacity of the national grid has seen a massive jump of 4000mw in one go,” said an official.
He added that the ongoing trial operation marked one of the last steps in the completion of the project.
“In this last stage it will be trial-operated for a few days continuously at various power levels and under various configurations to test it in full running condition,” said the official.
Furthermore, the Capability Demonstration Test of the Project will also be performed during this period.
It is informed that the equipment debugging, station commissioning, and system commissioning up to the level of high power bipole testing of the project has already been completed, certified by both the Independent Engineer from Italy and Owner Engineer from Canada.
Despite Covid-19 pandemic, the overall work was completed by end of 2020. Earlier, the project was expected to be commissioned by March 2021 after going through trial run. However, after reaching an amicable solution, the contractor and NTDC agreed in writing to conduct trial run during peak load of summer months with COD in September 2021.
Coal accounts for 32% of total power generation in Pakistan in January 2021
https://www.dawn.com/news/1609100
In the last five years Pakistan has aggressively pursued coal power under the multi-billion-dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) initiative as well as outside it, increasing coal-based capacity from negligible to 4,620 megawatts. With seven other coal-based projects under construction, the country expects to add 4,590 megawatts by the end of 2026.
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Coal-based power generation in January rose to the seven-month high of 2,560 gigawatt hours (GWh) as total generation from different fuels increased by 3.7 per cent to 8,079 GWh from 7,794 GWh a year ago and by 2.5 per cent from 7,880 GWh from the previous month.
Coal power generation in the country peaked at 2,581 GWh in July last year before sliding back to 1,095 GWh in November. As a ratio of total generation in any given month in the last three years since the beginning of 2018, the share of coal power rose its highest of just below 32pc in January 2021. According to data, share of coal generation in the country’s total electricity output bottomed to 9.2pc in September 2018.
In the last five years Pakistan has aggressively pursued coal power under the multi-billion-dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) initiative as well as outside it, increasing coal-based capacity from negligible to 4,620 megawatts. With seven other coal-based projects under construction, the country expects to add 4,590 megawatts by the end of 2026.
Coal power has increased by above 62pc to 15,262 GWh during the first seven months of the current fiscal year from 9,395 GWh during the same period in FY19, underscoring growth in its capacity and utilisation because of fuel price considerations. Its share in overall generation during the period July-January has risen from 12.9pc in FY19 to around 20pc this year in spite of 8.7pc increase in the cost of coal-based generation year-on-year to Rs6.47 per KWh last month on global coal prices.
An Arif Habib analyst, Rao Aamir Ali, said the share of coal power during winter increases because of reduction in hydel generation and closure of gas-based plants due to the shortage of the fuel. He pointed out that the share of coal power in the country’s generation will likely double in the years to come as new plants come online over the next six years to end 2026.
Sheikh Mohammad Iqbal, a power-sector consultant based in Lahore, is glad to see the increasing share of coal power in the country’s total power generation. “I am of the firm view that maximum utilisation of the coal-based power is critical for slashing the overall cost of generation. It is good for the economy of countries like Pakistan even though some may oppose coal power because of its potential impact on the environment.
“But they should remember that the coal power technology has improved a great deal and it no longer can be regarded dirty fuel when it comes to producing electricity from it. I would say coal is much cleaner fuel for electricity generation than furnace oil.”
IS THERE A SOLUTION TO PAKISTAN’S ENERGY PUZZLE?
Countries around Asia weigh up the costs and benefits of nuclear power over coal and LNG
https://tribune.com.pk/story/2369846/is-there-a-solution-to-pakistans-energy-puzzle
According to data released at the beginning of August, out of 18,400MW of energy generated, almost 11,000MW are from hydro power plants and nuclear power plants. The remaining 7,400MW of energy was mostly from gas and coal fired power plants.
These figures show that decision-makers have learnt how to produce cheaper energy. At least 1000MW of energy is produced by wind. In 2020, the US Energy Information Administration predicted that by 2025, coal would cost slightly more than $90 per megawatt-hour, compared to $63 for onshore wind and $48 for solar. Still, Pakistan and most of the Asian countries rely heavily on nuclear, hydro and/or coal power options.
Pakistan is relying too much on coal-fired power plants which are volatile options considering the climate crisis and the environmental cost of carbon emission. Before, Pakistan relied too much on liquified natural gas (LNG) to fulfill its energy shortcomings but because of the Russia-Ukraine war, LNG is not available in the market. At the moment, all of the LNG is going to Europe due to a ban on Russian petroleum products. Over time, Pakistan increased its generation capacity through the installation of new RLNG and coal-fired power plants. However, the country does not have enough funds to purchase fuel for these plants. Gas and coal-fired power plants are extremely sensitive to price fluctuations in the international market.
To address the shortage of electricity, the government recently issued a tender for the purchase of ten LNG cargos on the spot market. But as expected, none of the companies submitted bids due to high demand and higher prices in Europe. Given the current scenario, expensive LNG and coal-based power plants are proving difficult options, suggesting Pakistan should have focused more on nuclear power facilities.
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In the fiscal year 2019-2020, four coal-fired CPEC power plants generated 19 percent of Pakistan’s electricity. The 4.62 GW of coal-fired generation funded by CPEC includes the 1,320 MW Huaneng Shandong Ruyi-Sahiwal Coal Power Plant, the 1,320 MW Port Qasim Coal Fired Power Plant, the 1,320 MW HubCo Coal Fired Power Plant, and the 660 MW Engro Thar Coal Power Plant, all of which began supplying electricity to the national grid between 2017 and 2019. Construction on the Thal Nova, Thar Energy (HubCo), and Shanghai Electric (SSRL Thar Coal Block I) power plants to increase 1,980 MW of capacity is currently underway.
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Coal consumption increased at a rapid rate in 2018-19, owing to increased use of cement and other enterprises. Local coal production was 5.5 million tons between 2018 and 2019, while imports totaled 15.7 million tons. During this time-period, the residential sector consumed nearly half of total electricity usage, while hydroelectric power supplied 21.3 percent of Pakistan's power generated.
Pakistan’s Thar desert lignite coal boom gathers pace with SECMC mine hitting 10 Mt & SSRL mine starting up
https://im-mining.com/2021/12/31/pakistans-thar-desert-lignite-coal-boom-gathers-pace-secmc-mine-hitting-10-mt-ssrl-mine-starting/
During the course of operations, SECMC has maintained a good safety record following international and world-class benchmarks – a feat that has earned international acknowledgements from organisations such as the British Safety Council. SECMC has also adopted the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) framework to deploy high-impact interventions prioritising education, health, economic growth and women empowerment amongst other areas.
SECMC has also contributed to uplifting the local community by generating employment opportunities for the local population and creating other economic avenues for the community. It is pertinent to mention that 80% of the employees in SECMC are locals from Sindh where the project has provided significant socio-economic benefit to the local Thari population.
“The 10 Mt coal production mark is a commendable achievement considering the constant fluctuation and vulnerability in international coal prices,” said Chief Executive Officer SECMC – Amir Iqbal. He added that Thar coal is the best resource to help the national economy in terms of easing out the pressure on the Current Account Deficit and also indigenise the current energy mix which is heavily reliant on imported fuels. Currently, the second phase of the SECMC mine is already under development which will increase SECMC’s production to 7.6 Mt per annum with a cumulative power generation of 1,320MW.
Talking about the subsequent phase III expansion project, Iqbal said that the estimated investment for phase III expansion is to be approximately $100 million which will enable Thar Block-II to achieve a sustainable supply of 12.2 Mt of coal annually over the next 30 years. SECMC is expected to complete this expansion by June 2023 and with this expansion coal price of SECMC mine is to be reduced to under $30/t – making it the cheapest fuel source in the country ensuring economic stability and energy security for the country. In addition, phase III expansion will also enable Pakistan to save $420 million per annum on the account of import substitution whilst also leading to a reduction of PKR74 billion in circular debt on an annual basis.
The war in Ukraine: Impact on Pakistan’s energy security
by Waqar Rizvi
https://www.freiheit.org/south-asia/war-ukraine-impact-pakistans-energy-security
Pakistan has long dealt with energy-insecurity, a state of affairs exacerbated by the disastrous economic effects of the pandemic, floods and war in Ukraine. While some experts warned Pakistan that its energy dependence was untenable, there were others who believed such concerns were overblown thanks to the abundance and low cost of Liquefied Natural Gas. The war in Ukraine has proven the latter group wrong, the subsequent sanctions disrupting energy supplies from Russia and driving up global prices. Europe's entry into the market and ability to meet any cost in securing limited worldwide supplies place Pakistan in an even more difficult position.
Pakistani officials already warn of mass gas shortages, and load-shedding in households is rampant with areas of the country experiencing daily power cuts that are 16 hours long. The country’s vital textile industry also stands to suffer from an interrupted and limited supply. This situation exists despite Pakistan's possession of exploitable natural resources, owing to policy-makers' dogmatic view that the development of these resources for self-reliance was unachievable. In addition, insecurity and political instability in areas such as resource-rich Balochistan have thwarted any remedial measures.
Pakistan’s alliances and loyalties with traditional allies are being tested at this difficult time. To encourage vital foreign investment in Pakistan's energy sector, the government can take advantage of the desire of the Chinese, Russians, Americans and Europeans to gain influence in the country. Restricted by geopolitical considerations from taking sides in the war on Ukraine, Pakistan must secure its national interests, especially energy security.
Pakistan should eschew inactivity despite the risk of being outbid in the competitive global LNG market. Responsible energy policymaking must be embraced, including the implementation and incentivisation of energy conservation measures, whilst shielding the lower classes from additional energy costs. Needed is a multifaceted energy policy that considers all available resources such as gas, oil, coal, solar, hydro and wind power. Experts must be involved in the formulation of sound strategies to exploit these sources, and Pakistan must learn from its mistakes, such its signing of bad-faith contracts with LNG middlemen, which allowed them to abandon Pakistan's agreements for profits.
However, political turmoil remains the largest contributor to Pakistan's energy insecurity. The government and opposition parties will need to put aside their partisan bickering to prioritize the country’s interests. Sound policies grounded in reality, as opposed to theoretical ones, are called for, and leaders must step up during crises.
Pakistan is in dire need of an infrastructural upgrade and must play all its cards to achieve it. Diplomatically, Pakistan holds significant influence in international forums and has valuable voting power at the United Nations. Economically, Pakistan can promise significant benefits to nations that invest in its natural resources.
Transmission constraints leave Thar plants underutilised - Business - DAWN.COM
https://www.dawn.com/news/1738824
Only 1,800MW of the 2,400MW Thar power plants can be evacuated at any given time owing to transmission constraints. Delays in the construction of the second transmission line between Thar and Matiari Converter Station have resulted in the coal-based power plants sitting idle despite ranking highly on the merit order of efficient electricity producers.
Central Power Purchasing Agency-Guarantee Ltd (CPPA-G), which is the government-owned single buyer of electricity from independent power producers, recently wrote a letter to National Transmission and Despatch Company Ltd (NTDC) demanding that CPPA-G be updated about the “progress and tentative commissioning date” of the transmission line.
“It is clear that in the present scheme, all four Thar coal power projects cannot be evacuated completely at once, which raises a serious concern on the power evacuation and the capacity of the transmission line,” said the letter seen by Dawn.
Demand for electricity will increase in the coming summer season, but the “full cheap-power evacuation from indigenous coal is not possible” under the current circumstances, it added.
Power generation began in Thar with two coal-based plants of 330MW each by Engro Powergen in Block-2. Later on, Hub Power along with other shareholders built two more power plants of 330MW each in the same Block-2.
Meanwhile, Shanghai Electric built two power plants of 660MW each in Block-1 of Thar coalfields. Around 2,400MW of the installed capacity of 2,640MW is dispatchable. But only one transmission line, which can carry up to 1,800MW, is currently available for the four Thar projects.
The inadequacy of infrastructure has resulted in “abnormal voltage” and “frequency fluctuations” for Thar power plants on the sole dedicated transmission line, the CCPA-G said.
A source in the power sector told Dawn that the two plants in Block-1 are being despatched continuously because of their low per-unit cost of coal.
As for Block-2, the source said only two of the four plants are despatched at any given time — one each from Engro and Hub Power.
According to an energy sector expert, producing 600MW on imported coal instead of Thar coal is costing around $30 million every month. Producing that much electricity through imported gas should cost $35m in imports, he said.
Speaking to Dawn, a senior official of NTDC said work on the under-construction transmission line should be complete in “two to two and a half months”. The 220-kilometre long transmission line costing about Rs12 billion was supposed to be complete by August 2022. The deadline was extended to January this year, but that was also missed.
“Prices of everything from steel and cement went up three times. Then the floods hit and halted all construction work. Building a transmission line involves right-of-way issues, which make the process complicated and time-consuming,” he said, adding that the process should be over by the end of April.
Top 10 countries with lowest energy consumption per capita
Outside Africa, Bangladesh, Pakistan and the Philippines stand out for low energy security
https://www.fdiintelligence.com/content/data-trends/top-10-countries-with-lowest-energy-consumption-per-capita-81642
Outside Africa, fast-growing Asia economies such as Bangladesh, Pakistan and the Philippines use the least primary energy per capita, according to the latest BP Statistical Review of World Energy.
People in East Africa, Central Africa and Western Africa use 4.7, 5.7 and 7.2 gigajoules of primary energy per capita per year, respectively, the review notes. Primary energy is that classed as an energy source that has not been subject to any human-engineered conversion processes.
While energy use in these regions matches typically subdued levels of economic development, that is not the case in Bangladesh, Pakistan and the Philippines — countries with few indigenous energy commodities where energy infrastructure has struggled to keep up with the accelerating economic growth of the past years.
Per capita energy consumption in Bangladesh stands at 9.9 gigajoules, BP data shows — the lowest of any country outside Africa. Pakistan consumes 17.1 gigajoules and the Philippines consumes 17.6 gigajoules. By contrast, the average for countries in the OECD is 167.9 gigajoules, while stands at 56.2 gigajoules in non-OECD countries.
Bangladesh has resorted to Russian technology and financing to build the country’s first nuclear plant and thus limit the country’s recurrent power outages, while Pakistan, which already has six nuclear power plants in operation, has been developing liquified natural gas terminals to bump up imports of LNG.
After Sri Lanka, with 17.8 gigajoules, and the Southern Africa region (excluding South Africa) with 23.5 gigajoules, the top 10 is rounded out by two other emerging economic powerhouses — India and Morocco.
India, with 23.3 gigajoules per capita, continues to generate most of the primary energy it through coal and oil. The country is the world’s second-largest consumer of coal after China, although its first renewable energy generation has also come online in the past few years.
Morocco, with 25.6 gigajoules per capita, gets most of its primary energy from oil, although the country boasts the world’s biggest thermal solar power plant, and its renewable energy potential is now being assessed for major cross-border energy generation projects.
Top 10 countries with lowest energy consumption per capita
Outside Africa, Bangladesh, Pakistan and the Philippines stand out for low energy security
https://www.fdiintelligence.com/content/data-trends/top-10-countries-with-lowest-energy-consumption-per-capita-81642
Outside Africa, fast-growing Asia economies such as Bangladesh, Pakistan and the Philippines use the least primary energy per capita, according to the latest BP Statistical Review of World Energy.
People in East Africa, Central Africa and Western Africa use 4.7, 5.7 and 7.2 gigajoules of primary energy per capita per year, respectively, the review notes. Primary energy is that classed as an energy source that has not been subject to any human-engineered conversion processes.
While energy use in these regions matches typically subdued levels of economic development, that is not the case in Bangladesh, Pakistan and the Philippines — countries with few indigenous energy commodities where energy infrastructure has struggled to keep up with the accelerating economic growth of the past years.
Per capita energy consumption in Bangladesh stands at 9.9 gigajoules, BP data shows — the lowest of any country outside Africa. Pakistan consumes 17.1 gigajoules and the Philippines consumes 17.6 gigajoules. By contrast, the average for countries in the OECD is 167.9 gigajoules, while stands at 56.2 gigajoules in non-OECD countries.
Bangladesh has resorted to Russian technology and financing to build the country’s first nuclear plant and thus limit the country’s recurrent power outages, while Pakistan, which already has six nuclear power plants in operation, has been developing liquified natural gas terminals to bump up imports of LNG.
After Sri Lanka, with 17.8 gigajoules, and the Southern Africa region (excluding South Africa) with 23.5 gigajoules, the top 10 is rounded out by two other emerging economic powerhouses — India and Morocco.
India, with 23.3 gigajoules per capita, continues to generate most of the primary energy it through coal and oil. The country is the world’s second-largest consumer of coal after China, although its first renewable energy generation has also come online in the past few years.
Morocco, with 25.6 gigajoules per capita, gets most of its primary energy from oil, although the country boasts the world’s biggest thermal solar power plant, and its renewable energy potential is now being assessed for major cross-border energy generation projects.
USGS: Pakistan Mining Industry 2019
https://pubs.usgs.gov/myb/vol3/2019/myb3-2019-pakistan.pdf
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2018. In fiscal year 2019 (July 1, 2018, through
June 30, 2019), the mining and quarrying sector contributed
2.6% of the GDP and the growth rate of the mining and
quarrying sector was negative 1.96% compared with 7.72% in
fiscal year 2018 (International Monetary Fund, 2020; State Bank
of Pakistan, 2020a, p. 18–19; 2020b, p. 8; 2020d, p. 3).
The total import value in fiscal year 2019 was $54.8 billion
compared with $60.8 billion in fiscal year 2018. The import
value of mineral fuels, oils, and their distillation products was
$16.0 billion; iron and steel, $3.38 billion; articles of iron or
steel, $840 million; and aluminum and articles of aluminum,
$349 million. The total export value in fiscal year 2019 was
$23.0 billion compared with $23.2 billion in fiscal year 2018.
The export value of mineral fuels, oils, and their distillation
products was $477 million; salt, sulfur, lime, and stone,
$463 million; and copper and articles of copper, $269 million
(State Bank of Pakistan, 2020c, p. 123–124).
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In 2019, the production of lignite was estimated to have
increased by 180%; lead (mine, Pb content), by 68%; feldspar,
by 61%; chromium (mine, Cr2
O3
content), by 46%; zinc (mine,
Zn content), by 39%; talc, by 38%; lead (secondary, refinery),
by 33% (reported); soda ash, by 27%; bentonite, by 24%;
kaolin, by 17%; and sand and gravel (industrial, silica), by 12%.
In contrast, the production of fuller’s earth was estimated to
have decreased by 85%; dolomite, by 57%; bauxite, by 49%;
iron oxide pigment, by 47%; magnesite, by 39%; sulfur (native),
by 38%; pumice, by 33%; raw steel, by 30% (reported);
limestone, by 22%; iron (mine, Fe content) and phosphate rock
(gross weight), by 20% each; barite, by 15%; sand and gravel
(industrial, unspecified), by 13%; rock salt, by 12%; and quartz,
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Copper and Gold.—In 2019, Metallurgical Corporation
of China Ltd. (MCC) applied for an extension of its mining
license for the Saindak copper-gold mine, which was set to
expire in 2022. MCC operated the Saindak Mine through a
50%-owned subsidiary, Saindak Metals Ltd. The company
produced 13,049 metric tons (t) of copper (mine, Cu content)
in 2019, which was an increase of 4.1% from the 12,538 t
produced in 2018. MCC mined mainly the south and north ore
bodies using open pit mining; the deposits were expected to be
depleted of minable resources after 2021. The east ore body of
the mine was estimated to have 278 million metric tons (Mt)
of ore and an expected mine life of 19 years. The exports of
copper and articles thereof from Pakistan to China increased to
$550 million in 2019 from $106 million in 2016
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Natural Gas.—Pakistan was in the process of building five
liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals that were expected to
start operation in 2021 or 2022. The new terminals would triple
Pakistan’s LNG imports and help lessen the gas shortage in
the country. Pakistan had been subject to shortages of natural
gas for power generation, fertilizer production, and household
usages owing to the country’s inability to supply enough gas
from domestic resources, its aged distribution network, and the
difficulty in sourcing LNG cargoes (Nickel, 2019; Abbasi, 2020;
Mohanty and others, 2021).
Petroleum.—Eni Pakistan Ltd. (owned by Eni S.p.A. of Italy,
as operator), Exploration and Production Pakistan BV, Oil and
Gas Development Co., and Pakistan Petroleum Ltd. each held a
25% interest in the Kekra-1 well of the Indus Block G. In 2019,
the consortium ended exploration at the Kekra-1 well after
no reserves of petroleum were found (Hassan, 2019; Rarrick,
2019).
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