Chinese firms to invest $15bn in Pakistani coal-fired power
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By Paul Homewood
From PEI:
Officials at the Pakistani water and power ministry have said Chinese companies are expected to spend around $15bn over the next 15 years to build close to a dozen coal-fired power plants of varying sizes around the country.
Reuters reports that Mohammed Younus Dagha, the former federal secretary for water and power, who became commerce secretary at the end of March, is emphasising that the coal plants are part of a larger plan.
That is the $54bn China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which includes spending of about $33bn on a total of 19 energy projects, including coal-fired and renewable power plants, transmission lines, and other infrastructure.
“Hefty investment under the CPEC project has held out hopes of significantly spiking domestic power generation (by) around 6,000 MW by the end of 2018,” Dagha said.
Combined, the projects will eventually generate 16,000 MW of electricity, which the government says is urgently needed.
Coal power will, according to these projections, account for 75 per cent of the newly generated power, which the government says will be installed with the latest in pollution-minimizing equipment.
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Quite apart from politico-strategic considerations, China will be hoping to sell much of this coal. Currently, according to BP, Pakistan only produces about a third of the coal it uses.
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May 3, 2017 at 09:09PM
