KARACHI, June 10: The city will face an acute shortage of electricity over the next 10 years when most of the generation plants of the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation will have phased out.

Well-placed sources told Dawn on Sunday that by 2014 at least seven KESC generation plants would have expired.

“The 66-megawatt unit 1 of the Korangi Thermal Power Station will be the first to go in 2002-2003. The 125-megawatt unit 3 of the Korangi Thermal Power Station will follow suit in 2004-2005. The 70-megawatt generation plant at the Karachi Nuclear Power Plant will bid the KESC farewell in 2005-2006. In the year 2007-2008 two generation plants of the KESC will retire: the 125-megawatt unit 4 of the Korangi Thermal Power Station and the 80-megawatt Korangi Town Gas Turbine Power Station. The next year, ie in 2008-2009, the 100-megawatt Site Gas Turbine Power Station will call it a day. In 2013-2014 the first generation plant at the Bin Qasim Power Station, capable of producing 210 megawatts, will retire.”

They added that even at present, when all these generation plants were operating at full throttle, the KESC faced a shortage of about 500 megawatts every day which was met by supply from the Water and Power Development Authority.

Currently, the government has restrained the KESC from generating power on its own, leaving it with no alternative but to purchase power at exorbitant rates from the independent power producers.

According to documents obtained by Dawn, the KESC tried to initiate a generation project at West Wharf but the half-hearted manner in which the government started the project and a subsequent shift in government policy prevented the project from seeing the light of day.

The KESC documents say: “The KESC submitted the proposal of West Wharf project (2X210 megawatts capacity) to the government of Pakistan for approval on a number of occasions (in 1989, 1990, 1991 and 1993). However, the project was not approved and it was decided that the project be offered in the private sector. It was also observed in various meetings with the government of Pakistan that since the government policy was shifting towards inviting the private sector for power projects, therefore, the KESC’s future needs could be met through the private sector.

“The West Wharf project was, as such, offered in the private sector by Private Power and Infrastructure Board in the year 1993; however, due to poor response shown by the bidders, the project was shelved.”

The KESC documents also describe the fate of another project that the power utility sought to undertake without success. “The KESC, in the meanwhile, arranged a feasibility study for a 360-megawatt unit at the Korangi Thermal Power Station in the year 1994. However, due to shift in the government policy to implement projects in the private sector, the KESC could not proceed with its planned projects and had to depend on the projects in the private sector which were to be implemented under the Energy Policy announced for the first time by the government of Pakistan in the year 1994.”

The KESC sources said the power utility was counting on a 1000-megawatt Hubco-KESC link which would materialize in 2003-2004. “Even then, the best option for the KESC is to generate electricity on its own so that it does not have to depend on the costlier power generated by the independent power producers.”