Page 7 - AsiaElec Week 30 2022

AsiaElec COAL AsiaElec

Pakistan cancels 300-MW

Gwadar coal project

PAKISTAN THE Pakistani government has abandoned Sahiwal power plant and the 1,320-MW Hub
plans to build a 300-MW coal plant at Gwadar plant from imported coal to domestic brown
in the face of rising coal prices. coal mined in Thar Province.
The Ministry of Energy said that it was now Although this reduce exposure to global coal
looking into building a solar farm at the site prices, it would use dirtier brown coal that causes
instead in an effort to reduce the country’s coal more emissions and would be more harmful to
imports. The move comes as the government has the local population exposed to coal-inspired
decided not to install any new power plant based pollution.
on imported fuel in the future. However, the minister said the process to
The government first proposed the project in convert the three projects to local coal would
2014 as a facility using imported coal that would take investment and time, as boilers of the plants
form part of the China-Pakistan Economic Cor- would need some specific changes for calibration
ridor (CPEC) programme. with Thar coal.
“We have decided to abandon the project, but The incidence of asthma and other respira-
we will have to take up the issue at various CPEC tory diseases is high among the children living
forums with our Chinese counterparts. CPEC near the open-cast coal mines in Pakistan’s
projects have sensitivity and importance, which Balochistan Province, where about 50% of Paki-
is why the Power Division’s decision to replace stan’s coal is produced.
the imported coal-based project at Gwadar with Pakistan is currently importing 30 MW to 70
a solar plant is being kept at a low profile,” a min- MW of electricity from Iran under an agreement
istry official told Pakistan’s The News. of 110 MW. Sometimes, Pakistan has some fluc-
The project was subsequently approved and tuation in electricity import because of demand
land for the plant was purchased but financial in Iran. Pakistan had inked a new agreement of
support was unresolved. importing 100 MW electricity for which a trans-
However, the spike in international fuel mission line would be laid from Polan (Iran) to
prices, including coal, has cost $20bn in the 11 Gwadar by the end of 2022, or the start of 2023.
months to the end of May. The government has also increased its emphasis
Elsewhere in the country’s coal industry, the on laying its own infrastructure in Balochistan
government has proposed converting the new and the NTDC will lay a high transmission line
1,320-MW Port Qasim plant, the 1,320-MW of 500kV from Makran coast to Gwadar.™

Week 30 27•July•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P7