Pakistan to buy 100MW electricity from Iran

Jun 14, 2006 - Doha Times

LAHORE: Pakistan’s Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) has signed an MoU with the Iranian power generation authority for the import of 100MW of electricity from Iran to electrify the new port city Gwadar.

The agreement was reached on the special instructions of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz to meet the emerging needs of Gwadar, official sources said here yesterday.

The sources in Wapda said the decision to import electricity from Iran was taken under the ‘Energy Security Plan’ formulated in February 2005.

Besides this Wapda is also preparing a feasibility report for importing electricity from Tajikistan. Sources in Wapda revealed that the MoU was signed on May 25, 2006 in which both the sides agreed on power tariff.

The price offered by the Iranian side was 6.9 US cents/unit whereas Wapda offered 5.5 US cents/unit. After discussions, it was agreed by both parties that a reasonable tariff for electricity supply to Gwadar shall be 6.25 US cents/unit.

The tariff will be applicable for the first year of the commercial operation date and both the sides further agreed to finance the cost of construction of the relevant transmission facilities including sub-stations within their respective jurisdiction.

Anwar Khalid, the member power at Wapda and Majid Farmad, the manager for generation expansion planning of Iran signed the MoU.

At present Wapda is getting about 39MW of electricity from Iran for different cities of Baluchistan province.

The National Engineering Services of Pakistan is preparing a feasibility report on importing 1,000MW from Tajikistan.

However, the situation in Afghanistan is a major hindrance in the project and this is why the government has directed the authority to accelerate its pace on importing electricity from Iran to meet the demand.

“Import of electricity from Iran would help provide electricity to remote areas and eliminate load shedding in Baluchistan,” Khalid says adding that presently they are purchasing electricity from Iran at the rate of 5 cent per unit.

He said a 170km transmission line will be constructed for the project. Iran will construct about 70km portion on Iranian territory while Wapda will constructed the remaining 100km line in their jurisdiction.

Pakistan’s current installed electricity generation capacity is 19,404MW of which 6,489MW is hydel, 6,012MW through independent power producers, 6,441MW through Wapda’s thermal power plants and 462MW through nuclear energy. -Internews