July 24, 2003	Thursday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 23, 1424

ISLAMABAD, July 23: The government has decided to launch about 3000-mw of thermal projects worth around $7.5 billion through independent power producers (IPPs) in selected cities of the country to meet power shortages in the immediate future.

Of this, 1080-mw thermal power projects would be launched in Karachi and remaining in Punjab’s industrial cities. The investors would be given all those incentives which were available under the 1994 power policy, a senior government official told Dawn on Wednesday.

The 1994 power policy has been under severe criticism for almost a decade now. This had resulted into additional capacity build-up of more than 3000-mw and over Rs100 billion annual additional financial burden on Wapda due to payments to IPPs.

Managing director of the Private Power and Infrastructure Board (PPIB), Zafar Ali Khan said the priority is that initially gas-based plants should be launched, followed by coal-based plants that would take some 8-10 years to materialize.

He said a meeting presided over by President General Pervez Musharraf on Tuesday decided that PPIB should act as a dedicated organization to execute these projects instead of Wapda and the KESC.

He said PPIB has already cleared two projects of 200-mw power generation capacity, including 120-mw gas-based power plant sponsored by Tapal Energy and 80-mw by Defence Housing Authority.

Zafar said PPIB has also invited expressions of interest (EOIs) for three plants of 300-mw each with a total capacity of 900-mw power generation, two of them to be situated at Hawksbay, Karachi. Karachi was currently facing a power shortage of 1080- mw.

He said the shortage in Karachi is expected to increase in the near future if no power projects are established on priority. Earlier, these projects were used to be launched by the Wapda and KESC but they no more could do that because of ongoing corporatization process.

He said the Wapda had only three generation companies which are already being corporatized for ultimate privatization and hence the president decided that PPIB should be used as a dedicated institution of process and complete new thermal power plants.

He said after PPIB received the EOIs and then process them and then ask for quotations and financial and technical proposal from the investors.

The PPIB managing director said that his organisation had already received EOIs from 11 investors worth $2.5 billion total cost for up to 1000-mw power generation. “We are processing them,” he said.

He said that another EOI submitted by a joint venture of an American and local partners for 400-mw (200x2 mw) of two projects to be situated at Balloki, near Multan was under process but the name of the US-company could not be disclosed at this stage.

He said another thermal station of 450-mw near Faisalabad would be launched in the near future following a policy decision as to who should execute this project.

Mr. Khan said Wapda was insisting it should be allowed to develop the project but added the government had no finances to support Wapda in this regard.

He said that since gas being scarce, the ministry of petroleum and natural resources had been directed to arrange additional gas supplies. He said natural gas in small quantities was available at Mari and Uch gas fields.

He did not rule out oil-based power generation but said this option was not under consideration at this moment. He said coal- based power generation too was not expected immediately because development of Lakhra and Thar would take 8-10 years.