ISLAMABAD: According to Minister of State for Petroleum Musadik Masood Malik, the power plants built as part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) are the most effective in Pakistan and serve as models for the country’s energy policy.
This summer, Pakistan’s energy sector is in jeopardy because of inefficiencies, a growing circular debt, and a heavy reliance on imported fossil fuels.
Lower-income people were the most severely impacted by the energy crisis, which directly affected economic activity.
However, due to CPEC, the efficiency and productivity of the energy sector has increased and it has also brought investment to the country, “yet more needs to be done”, the state minister said in an interview with China Economic Net.
The price of electricity will gradually drop, he predicted, the more effectively we produce it.
Malik emphasised that the infrastructure for power, gas, and petroleum needs to be continuously developed in order to solve Pakistan’s problems.
The minister stated that “CPEC projects like the Karot run-of-the-river project are very important for the national interest and security.”
As Pakistan has a body of water that flows through the Himalayas and down to the sea, he emphasised the importance of hydroelectric power plants. There are numerous locations in between where the government could erect hydroelectric power plants similar to Karot.
“As you can see from the Mangla Dam and Tarbela Dam projects, the cost of generating electricity from these two is just the same after running for 20 to 25 years,”
Additionally, new power plants are very expensive to build, particularly hydropower ones, but using local resources over the long term is in our best interests. Here, water is available without even costing us foreign currency.
The minister gave other CPEC power projects importance in addition to the hydroelectric power plants.
“The issue Pakistan is currently having is that the majority of our power plants run on imported fuel. This import fee significantly strains our financial resources. We have therefore been considering for a while that we ought to concentrate on all the assets that are being produced in the nation,” he said.
highlighting indigenous peoples
He declared, “We will produce additional energy from our own resources, using coal produced in the nation.
“A number of plants can be set up in Thar, at the mouth of the mine, where coal is being extracted. This will also lead to development in the region, increase electricity production in the country, and we will be able to transmit from there,” Malik noted.
Additionally, the Thar’s formation of an energy cluster has the potential to improve three things: the area, the nation, and the local populace.
