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Pakistan risks locking itself into building more power capacity than it needs as a result of over-optimistic energy demand growth forecasts that do not take into account the impact of Covid-19, according to a new IEEFA report. Pakistan’s state-owned National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) published its latest long-term power plan – the Indicative Generation Capacity Expansion Plan (IGCEP) 2047 – in April 2020. The policy document fails to live up to the government’s stated principles of sustainability and affordability, IEEFA report author Simon Nicholas, energy finance analyst at the Institute…

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Pakistan’s natural gas demand-supply gap, currently at 1,440 MMCFD, is projected to rise to 3,684 MMCFD by 2024-25 and 5,389 MMCFD by 2029-30. For a country that relies on indigenous and imported gas for more than 40% of its energy requirements, this is an alarming situation. And it has been here for some time now. In fact, the country’s industrial sector has been reeling from the constraint for the better part of this decade as even with the induction of imported RLNG in 2015 the country is far from overcoming…

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LAHORE: Over 93000 electricity connections with annual bill of Rs 30 billion have propelled the Punjab government to opt for solarization as the way forward in order to reduce electricity bills and improve the environment, said provincial energy department sources. According to the sources, 13 public sector universities with 26 megawatt potential have initiated solarization projects. The Punjab government is set to functionalize 2.5 megawatt solar plant by March 2021 at Islamia University Bahawalpur, they added. Already, they said 8000 public sector schools in Punjab have been converted to solar.…

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LAHORE: Coal-based power generation is cheaper as compared to gas and oil by Rs5.60/kWh on the basis of plant load factors approved by National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA). Anjum Nasim, an energy expert, said that power generation based on natural gas is the least expensive form of power generation followed by coal, RLNG and RFO (oil). Tariffs of natural gas plants, on average, are 11% less expensive than tariffs on coal-based plants while tariffs for RLNG based plants are 36% more expensive than coal-based plants and tariffs on oil/RFO…

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Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) has raised objections over the 27-year Indicative Generation Capacity Expansion Plan (IGCEP 2020-2047) prepared by the National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC). IEEFA has declared the IGCEP 2020-2047 as contradictory to the government’s principles of affordability and sustainability. According to the IEEFA report, Pakistan would end up building more power capacity than its requirement due to over-optimistic energy demand growth forecasts made without taking into account the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic. Overbuilding of power generation capacity would result in the underutilization…

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