Staff Reporter
Peshawar
Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mahmood has raised his concerns on neglecting the hydro power projects of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government in the 27 years Indicative Generation Capacity Expansion Plan (IGCEP) 2020-47 of National Electricity Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) devised for power generation at national level, and has urged upon NEPRA to review the plan and to include the hydro power projects of the provincial government in it.
He has said that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has a potential capacity of producing more than 30,000 Megawatts electricity which could be utilized to overcome the issue of energy crises in the country. He was leading the team of the provincial government which attended a hearing of NEPRA regarding the proposed IGCEP 2020-47 through video link held under the chair of Chairman NEPRA, Tauseef H. Farooq the other day.
Other members of the team included Advisor to CM on Energy and Power Himayatullah Khan, Secretary Energy and Power Muhamnad Zubair Khan, Chief Executive Officer PEDO, Naeem Khan and barrister Asghar Khan. On this occasion the team of the provincial government raised the point that for the first time NEPRA published the IGCEP back in February 2019 wherein the hydro power projects of the province were ignored altogether to which the Pakhtunkhwa Energy Development Organization (PEDO) objected and reported the same to NEPRA being competent forum for the approval of the Plan; and consequently NEPRA issued directives to National Transmission and Dispatch Company to include the hydro projects of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the revised publication of the plan.
It was added by the team that by then PEDO provided details about its ongoing and upcoming new hydro power projects but in the revised publication of the plan in April 2020, the details provided by the provincial government were ignored once again, and resultantly, PEDO while rejecting the proposed plan, submitted comprehensive comments for consideration in this regard.
On this occasion the provincial team, in its effort to defend the rights of the province, registered its serious observations for not including its hydro power projects in the proposed plan and termed it as injustice to the province and made it clear that the same was not acceptable to the provincial government at any case. Chief Minister Mahmood Khan who for the first time led his team in the hearing, strongly demanded to include all the hydro power projects of the province in the proposed plan. Chairman NEPRA, after listening to the concerns of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, assured the Chief Minister of serious consideration and necessary steps to include the projects of the province in the revised proposed plan.
