{"id":5449,"date":"2017-08-11T11:47:02","date_gmt":"2017-08-11T06:47:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ssgc.com.pk\/web\/?p=5449"},"modified":"2017-08-11T11:47:02","modified_gmt":"2017-08-11T06:47:02","slug":"as-abbasi-becomes-premier-govt-may-promote-rlng-power-plants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ssgc.com.pk\/web\/?p=5449","title":{"rendered":"As Abbasi Becomes Premier, Govt May Promote RLNG Power Plants"},"content":{"rendered":"

ISLAMABAD:\u00a0<\/strong>As Shahid Khaqan Abbasi becomes prime minister following his stint as petroleum minister, the government may decide to replace all inefficient thermal power stations with efficient re-gasified liquefied natural gas (RLNG) plants, to be set up as independent power plants (IPPs), in an effort to provide low-cost sustainable electricity, sources say.<\/p>\n

The premier is pressing for stopping the consumption of furnace oil, diesel and coal in power production and banking only on the use of RLNG.<\/p>\n

A plan is being framed in the backdrop of consistently high oil import bill of the country as well as expensive electricity generation from oil.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

At present, 60% of electricity generated in Pakistan comes from thermal power plants, which are run on high-speed diesel, furnace oil or natural gas. The government believes that there is a dire need to optimise this resource based on efficiency.<\/p>\n

Current experiment with three LNG-based power plants \u2013 each having production capacity of 1,200 megawatts with 60% efficiency rate \u2013 has demonstrated that RLNG can provide the most cost-effective power generation source for Pakistan.<\/p>\n

According to sources, a proposal is being reviewed that says inefficient power plants running below 40% efficiency should be set aside and more efficient RLNG-based power projects of varying capacity can be set up under the IPP mechanism. They will provide sustainable low-cost electricity for the consumers.<\/p>\n

At present, eight oil-based power plants are generating 3,836MW of electricity, but their efficiency rate is less than 40%. They include Muzaffargarh power station, Jamshoro power station, Hubco plant, AES Lalpir, AES Pak Gen, Saba Power and Kohinoor Electric.<\/p>\n

Apart from these, 14 gas-based power plants are generating 4,138MW and are functioning at less than 34% efficiency. Of these, only one plant \u2013 Kot Addu Power Company (Kapco) \u2013 is operating at 45% efficiency.<\/p>\n

Eleven oil-based power plants are producing electricity at an efficiency rate that ranges from 42% to 50%.<\/p>\n

During his stint as petroleum minister, Abbasi had presented a plan to former prime minister Nawaz Sharif advocating a ban on the use of furnace oil, diesel and coal in power production.<\/p>\n

He argued that RLNG was the only cheaper source of power generation that would improve plant efficiency and save billions of dollars in oil imports.<\/p>\n

According to a fuel-efficiency comparison drawn by the petroleum ministry, the cost of consuming RLNG in the Bhikki power plant stood 97% lower than the cost of furnace oil used in the Muzaffargarh thermal power station.<\/p>\n

Similarly, the cost of RLNG for the Bhikki plant was 83% less than the cost of high-speed diesel consumed in Saif power plant.<\/p>\n

Abbasi suggested that Pakistan could save $6-8 billion in four years by running RLNG-fired power plants on the model of Bhikki plant compared to the current furnace oil-based electricity generation.<\/p>\n

At present, hydroelectric power has a 34% share in the power generation mix, furnace oil contributes 29%, locally produced natural gas 19%, RLNG 8% and renewable and nuclear energy 5% each.<\/p>\n

In 2018, when power production is expected to go up to 33,124 megawatts, the share of hydroelectric power will be 30%, furnace oil 18%, RLNG 16%, local natural gas 12%, imported coal 10%, renewable energy 8%, nuclear power 4% and local coal 2%.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Published in The Express Tribune, August 10th<\/sup>, 2017.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ISLAMABAD:\u00a0As Shahid Khaqan Abbasi becomes prime minister following his stint as petroleum minister, the government may decide to replace all Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5450,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ssgc.com.pk\/web\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ssgc.com.pk\/web\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ssgc.com.pk\/web\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssgc.com.pk\/web\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssgc.com.pk\/web\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5449"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssgc.com.pk\/web\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5449\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5452,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssgc.com.pk\/web\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5449\/revisions\/5452"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssgc.com.pk\/web\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ssgc.com.pk\/web\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssgc.com.pk\/web\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssgc.com.pk\/web\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}