PESHAWAR:
The provincial government has raised its concerns over neglecting the hydropower projects of the province in the 27-year indicative generation capacity expansion plan of the federal government.
Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Chief Minister Mahmood made these remarks during a hearing of the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) regarding the proposed Indicative Generation Capacity Expansion Plan (IGCEP) 2020-47.
The hearing which was held through video link was presided by NEPRA Chairperson Tauseef Farooq.
CM Mahmood has urged the NEPRA to review the plan and to include the hydropower projects of the provincial government in it.
The chief minister said that K-P has a potential capacity of producing over 30,000 megawatts electricity which could be utilised to overcome the issue of energy crises in the country.
The provincial government also raised the point that for the first time NEPRA published the IGCEP in February last year wherein the hydropower projects of the province were ignored altogether to which the Pakhtunkhwa Energy Development Organization (PEDO) objected.
The issue was then reported to NEPRA which directed the National Transmission and Dispatch Company to include the hydro projects of K-P in the revised publication of the plan.
The chief minister registered serious observations for not including the K-P’s hydropower projects in the proposed plan and termed it as injustice to the province and made it clear that the same was not acceptable to the provincial government at any case.
The NEPRA chief after listening to the concerns of the K-P government assured all projects of the provincial government would be included in the proposed plan.
