KARACHI – Power generation through local coal is the best available option for Pakistan where one out of every four individuals is still deprived of electricity services.
This shows the failure of the government to extend electricity services to 100% of the population due to a huge gap in demand and supply, and higher electricity cost due to imported fuel.
“Economic growth is linked with smooth supply of electricity but still more than one billion people in less developed countries including Pakistan lack electricity access or only experience partial and intermittent power supply,” said Osama Siddiqui, a microeconomic analyst.
It is to be noted that several events, including escalating petroleum prices due to Russia-Ukraine war, and the cumulative circular debt within the energy sector, resulted in lower energy production and severe electricity shortages in Pakistan during the last two years.
“The basic solution to all these issues is to generate more and cheaper electricity using local resources. Thar with 175 billion tons of coal reserves has the potential to easily make the country self-sufficient in energy for years to come,” he said.
He said that the current production capacity of Thar is only about 15 million tonnes annually and heavy investment is needed to mine more coal to generate electricity,” he said.
Power plants in Thar are producing 2600 MW electricity by using approximately 15 million tons of coal and rigorous planning is needed to attract investments for coal mining and power generation.
He added that a cheaper alternative is to convert existing coal-based power plants to local coal instead of imported coal, which will result in cheaper power production according to some studies which reveal that such power plants require negligible additional investment to achieve a fuel mix of 20 per cent local coal and 80 per cent imported coal, helping to curtail import bill too.
