LAHORE, Nov 28: Wapda will start saving an average Rs7 billion per annum on its thermal power generation costs from January, 2004, after replacing the use of furnace oil with natural gas.
Wapda’s thermal power generation general manager Chaudhry Abdul Ghafoor stated this while talking to newsmen here on Thursday.
Mr Ghafoor advocated for the use of gas for power generation due to continuous rise in furnace oil prices.
He said Wapda was receiving an average 400 million cubic feet of natural gas daily for its thermal power generation system against a requirement of 700 million cubic feet per day. The gas companies had assured to meet the shortfall by December, 2003, when new gas field would start production.
He said switch over from the use of costly furnace oil to cheap natural gas for power generation would save an average Re1 per unit and help in accumulated saving of Rs7 billion per annum in generation costs.
Mr Ghafoor said Wapda was generating thermal power at the rate of Rs2.44 per unit while the independent private power producers were supplying it at the rate of Rs4.55 per unit against fuel costs of Rs2 per unit. Conversion of the entire thermal power generation system to natural gas could thus help in substantial reduction in generation costs.
He said Wapda was not receiving any gas supply for its thermal units during winter at present and only furnace oil was being used for running them. He said gas supply rates for fertiliser factories were one-thirds as compared to thermal power units’ gas supply tariff.
He said Wapda hydel power potential was always fully utilised and only the shortfall in supply and demand was met through thermal power. A task force headed by the chief executive was studying the utilisation of Thor coal for power generation. Coal based power units were expected to start generating up to 6,000 megawatts of electricity by 2010.
He said Wapda had started generating 60 MWs of electricity by 1955 and doubled it in five years. Wapda power generation increased to 135 MWs by 1965 and 1,330 MWs by 1970. It touched 3,000 MWs mark by 1980 and had increased to 7,000 MWs by 1990. The present power generation capacity stood at 15,765 MWs with 5,010 MWs coming from hydel stations, 4,685 MWs from thermal units and 6,070 MWs from the IPPs.