Shanghai Thar Coal Power project starts generating 2,640MW of power: Dastagir
As the country gears up for the long summer months and with it prolonged load shedding, Minister for Power Engineer Khurram Dastgir on Tuesday gave the good news that a new power project has come online that can add around 2,640 Megawatts (MW) of electricity to the national grid using locally available fuel.
Addressing a news conference in Islamabad on Tuesday, he said the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) government, under the leadership of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, had made hectic efforts to produce power using local fuel instead of expensive, imported fuels such as furnace oil, diesel or re-gasified liquefied natural gas (RLNG).
In these efforts, he said, the government has succeeded in adding 1,980MW of electricity from locally produced Thar Coal to the system during over the past 10 months.
The latest project in this regard was the 2,640MW Shanghai Thar Coal Power Project. He said that the plant has started generating power utilizing local fuel, which will not only help control load-shedding but also help lower overall electricity prices.
Khurram Dastgir said Thar Coal has 175 billion tons of coal reserves which were sufficient to generate enough power to sustain Pakistan for a long time.
He said the government was tirelessly working on power projects. In this regard, he said that another project, the ThalNova Thar Coal Power Project, with a capacity to generate 330MW of electricity has also been finalized.
Moreover, he said that to provide power to the Gwadar port, the Iran-Gwadar Transmission Line project has also been completed and will be inaugurated by the prime minister soon.
He said the government has launched a project to generate some 6,000 MW of electricity using renewables, primarily solar. In the first phase of the project, a proposal for establishing a 600MW project in Muzaffargarh has also been floated.
Khurram Dastgir said the government is working on producing cheap electricity, which will help overcome the load-shedding issue, particularly in the upcoming summer season.
In reply to a question, the minister categorically stated that no change is being made in the electricity tariff.
To another question, he said no load shedding was carried out for industrial consumers during the recent winter season
