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Addressing at Aimanabad on Sunday the inauguration ceremony of a rental power plant, Gulf Rental Power, the first of eight such plants scheduled to go into operation during the tenure of the PPP-led government, the prime minister said it was a PPP government which had brought independent power producers (IPPs) to the country in the 90s.
He said the government was trying to overcome the energy crisis with short-term measures like rental power plants (RPP) and long-term steps such as hydropower projects.
He claimed that unannounced loadshedding had ended because of the Energy Conservation Plan.
The prime minister said the government planned to inaugurate one RPP each month, adding that efforts were also being made to generate power from hydro, thermal, coal and nuclear sources.
Mr Gilani said that 850MW Sokhi canal hydropower project would be completed at a cost of $1.4 billion.
Speaking on the occasion, Minister for Water and Power Raja Pervaiz Ashraf claimed that electricity from RPPs was only six per cent costlier than hydropower.
He said that work on projects to generate power by using coal had begun and the projects were expected to become operational in five to six years.
Earlier, Wapda engineer Haseeb Khan said that Gulf Rental Power project had cost $354 million and the plant would generate 62MW electricity.
