SWABI, May 22: Participants of a workshop on Tuesday called upon policymakers of Muslim countries to devise plans to produce cheap electricity to make Muslim countries self-sufficient in the field of energy.

Entitled “Thermal Power Plant, Efficiency and Heat Rate Improvement”, the eight-day workshop was financed by the Islamic Development Bank and organised by the Ghulam Ishaq Khan (GIK) Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology, in collaboration with the AES.

Experts from Afghanistan, Albania, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Gambia, Iran, Indonesia, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Mozambique, Sudan, Maldives, Uganda and Malaysia attended the workshop.

Speaking on the concluding-day session of the workshop, Hani Mohammad Nofal, head of the energy efficiency section of the Department of Alternative Energy, Jordanian Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, said that thermal power plants consumed more than 30 per cent of primary energy, the most intensive energy consumer, in comparison to other sectors in each Muslim country.

“All of us know that oil price has been increasing rapidly and it has already hit $70 a barrel.

“Experts predict it will reach $100 a barrel in future. That is the reason we need to learn how we can reduce expenditures of our power plants,” the Jordanian expert said.

“If we succeed in saving money in the energy sector, it can be invested in other sectors, thereby giving a great boost to overall economies of Muslim countries.”

Mr Nofal said that the workshop had helped “us in identifying areas where the energy can be saved. We have also learnt techniques to save fuel in order to produce electricity in thermal power plants.”

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Abdullah Sadiq, Rector of the GIK, said that Pakistan’s energy requirements were immediate and, in order to meet them, the country had to exploit all means for generating cheap energy, said Dr Abdullah Sadiq.

He said this was the first workshop of its kind and it had equipped the participants with required knowledge and skill to save energy.

Prof Dr Javed A. Chattha of the GIK said that the participants of the workshop had learnt how to save energy in thermal power plants. They had also studied major components of the thermal power plants and parameters that affected their performance, he said.