ISLAMABAD, Feb 20: The Planning Commission has proposed construction of four nuclear power plants in Karachi and Guddu on the lines of the Chashma Nuclear Power Plant and has asked the government to seek China’s help for the projects.

The commission also stressed the need for expediting construction of two coal-based power plants along Khalifa Point coast in Balochistan and a 1,200MW coal-based power station at Port Qasim under public-private partnership.

The commission also called for expediting work on alternative energy projects.

The construction of Chashma plant-1 had started in 1992 with the help of China. The plant started commercial operation in 2000.

The two-loop plant has a gross output of 325MW and a life span of 40 years.

The groundbreaking ceremony of the Chashma plant-2 was held in April 2005.

The commission said that the Chashma plant should be adopted as the “standard” unit and four more nuclear power plants should be built to diversify the sources of power generation.

The commission informed Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani that Pakistan was well-placed to generate an additional 17,140MW of electricity in the next five years if decision making process was improved.

An official document suggests that the country would have never faced the current power crisis had Wapda and the National Transmission and Dispatch Company utilised their generation capacity in a better way.

The commission noted that had Wapda and NTDC utilised their 70 per cent generation capacity, the power crisis would not have been that severe and the country’s industry and businesses would have not suffered.

The commission noted with concern that Wapda and NTDC’s power generation remained at 54 per cent of capacity in 2005-06. They slightly increased generation by utilising their 57 per cent capacities in 2006-07, but last year (2007-08) both the entities did not improve their generation, it rather dropped to 56 per cent of the capacity.

“There is no need to improve the capacity factor. Incentive bonus related to production is one of the solutions,” says the official document of the commission.

Wapda and NTDC have 14 hydel plants with the capacity of 6,444 MW, but they are generating only 51 per cent of their capacity.

Seventeen independent power producers which can generate 5,923MW utilise only 64 per cent of their capacity.

The situation of the Pakistan Electric Power Company is even worse: The company generates at less than half of its capacity of 4,779MW.

The commission said that the sole nuclear power plant (Chashma) was operational and worked at 86 per cent of its capacity of 325MW.

The commission proposed that the Thar Coal Open Test Pit Project, which had already been approved by the Central Developmental Working Party in March last year, should be revived.