Comment by Riaz Haq on May 7, 2022 at 12:57pm

Karot Hydropower connects unit one to national grid. It is a 720 MW plant constructed on river Jhelum, #Pakistan , in collaboration with one of the largest state-owned #Chinese power companies, #China Three Gorges Corporation. #CPEC Global Village Space

https://www.globalvillagespace.com/karot-hydropower-connects-unit-o...


Pakistan’s first Hydel power generation project – Karot Hydropower – under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) connected unit one to the national grid on 30 April, kick-starting the operations at full capacity, reported Developing Pakistan, a Pakistan based digital media platform. By connecting unit one of the Karot Hydropower, the project pumps 180 MW of electricity into the national grid. Karot Hydropower Project is a 720 MW constructed on river Jhelum, Pakistan, in collaboration with one of the largest state-owned Chinese power companies, the China Three Gorges Corporation, more commonly known as the CTG. The rest of the three units will be connected to the national grid in the upcoming months.

The project’s financial close was achieved in March 2017, and construction work began the same year. The mechanical, electrical, and other technical works of the project were completed around February 2022, and internal testing began in the same month. Work pertaining to transmitting power to the national grid was mostly completed by January however was not completed till April 30. The project is the first of three hydropower projects under China Pakistan Economic Corridor, and the estimated cost to get the plant operational stands at around $1.42 billion. According to the Managing Director of the Private Power and Infrastructure Board, the other two include “the 870MW Sukhi Kenari HPP and 1,124MW Kohala HPP.” Work on Sukhi Kerani is underway, whereas the construction of the Kohala Hydropower Project is yet to be initiated. The Kohala HPP is also being constructed on the Jhelum river, and a tripartite agreement was signed for its construction in June 2020; however, due to tax issues, the work on the construction site of the said river has still not begun.

It is pertinent to mention that according to the National Electric Power Regulator Authority state industry report 2021, Hydel sources of electricity generation account for 27.02 percent of the country’s electricity, significantly more than any other source except for thermal.

Separately, to address the energy demands of the country, Pakistani authorities have also engaged the World Bank to facilitate the set up of a 300 MW floating solar project at the Tarbela – Ghazi Barotha complex. The project’s projected cost is proposed to be around $346.5 million. Under the project, a 150 MW floating solar subproject will be deployed in the Ghazi Barrage headpond and another floating project of similar capacity at the Forebay of the existing Ghazi Barotha Hydropower plant. The project would greatly enhance the electricity supply and help meet the rising demand for electricity in a climate-smart manner.

Comment by Riaz Haq yesterday

Pakistan Private Sector Energy Project
@PFAN_PPSE
#Pakistan can get up to 20% of total power capacity from variable renewable energy simply by focusing on existing substations, mainly resulting in a series of small solar projects - according to ⁦⁦⁦⁦
@WorldBank


https://twitter.com/PFAN_PPSE/status/1529715190018760706?s=20&t...


https://blogs.worldbank.org/endpovertyinsouthasia/expanding-solar-a...


Rooftop solar can be delivered quickly and at a relatively low cost, while avoiding the need for additional transmission & distribution infrastructure.

Perhaps there can be a silver lining from the current load shedding--or planned power cuts due to insufficient supply--that is affecting the electricity sector in Pakistan: the immediate implementation of competitive bidding for new solar and wind capacity. For the last few years, the dominant narrative around the electricity sector has been one of “surplus capacity”, which has been used to justify postponing the procurement of new solar and wind. One of the concerns is that because the power sector must pay legacy fossil fuel generators regardless of whether they generate power (this is called “capacity payments”, for the capacity they provide to the system), adding additional capacity will further harm the financial viability of the sector. However, the current crisis illustrates the folly of such short-term thinking.

As highlighted in a report just published by the World Bank – “Variable Renewable Energy Competitive Bidding Study” – competitive bidding, whereby the government contracts for new power supplies through a reverse auction process based on the tariffs offered by different private sector developers, must start in 2022 to meet the requirements of the government’s Indicative Generation Capacity Expansion Plan 2021-2030. This envisages 2 Gigawatts of additional solar and wind capacity coming online from 2024 onwards, with further additions in subsequent years. Previous analysis published by the World Bank suggests that the IGCEP 2021-2030 targets are not ambitious enough, with scope for a more aggressive expansion of variable renewable energy. Considering the heavy reliance on expensive fossil fuels – which have dramatically increased in cost over the last few months – Pakistan would be saving money right now if it had been more ambitious in the past, even allowing for capacity payments.

Pakistan can get up to 20% of total power capacity from variable renewable energy simply by focusing on existing substations.
wind power

Implementation of competitive bidding will need to be taken forward by both the federal government (under the auspices of the Alternative Energy Development Board) and the provincial governments through a coordinated process. In addition to launching a competitive bidding process for the existing “Category 3” projects (those for which Letters of Intent have been issued under the previous policy regime), there is huge potential for quick wins by identifying substations that have surplus integration capacity and then designing a competitive bidding process involving a large number of such sites. As noted by the World Bank in our last study on this topic, the country can get up to 20% of total power capacity from variable renewable energy simply by focusing on existing substations, mainly resulting in a series of relatively small solar projects spread across all provinces.

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