ISLAMABAD: Federal Energy Minister Hammad Azhar on Monday announced that the Council of Common Interests (CCI) has approved a long-term plan for power generation pending since 2005.
In a meeting of the CCI — presided by Prime Minister Imran Khan and attended by chief ministers and federal ministers — the Indicative Generation Capacity Expansion Plan (IGCEP) model was approved, said Hammad Azhar.
Taking to Twitter, the minister announced that the IGCEP is a long-term plan for power generation, which allows power generation to be added to the grid when needed and when it is being provided at the least cost.
Issues like excess capacity and expensive, non-transparent power contracts will be avoided in the future as a result. Had such a model been put in place in the past, we could have avoided circular debt and many other problems.
— Hammad Azhar (@Hammad_Azhar) September 6, 2021
He added that in future, electricity would be generated from cheap fuel on a competitive basis. “The approval of the IGCEP would entail the elimination of expensive power generation, which would prevent non-transparent power contracts in the future,” Azhar further wrote.
Criticising the previous governments, the energy minister asserted that had the plan been approved in 2005, issues like circular debt could have been avoided.
The government has requested the World Bank for a loan of $400m for the operation designed to support the country’s comprehensive power sector reform programme. The operation’s development objective is to reduce circular debt flow through reducing power generation costs, decarbonising the energy mix, improving efficiency in distribution, and retargeting electricity subsidies.
