Tawanai

The carrots and sticks policy is in full swing. Now that Pakistan has earned some brownie points in the fight against terrorism, it might get rewarded in the area of energy. We’ll take whatever we can get!

The United States on Sunday assured Pakistan to extend full help and cooperation to resolve its energy crisis so that bilateral relations between the two countries could be further strengthened in all fields.

This was announced by Special Envoy of American President on Pakistan and Afghanistan Ambassador Richard Holbrooke while addressing a joint press conference with Foreign Minister Shah Mehmud Qureshi here at the Foreign Office following bilateral talks.

Holbrooke said: “The US understands Pakistan’s energy requirements and needs, therefore, energy-related issues will be focused more in Pak-US relations in future,” adding Pak-US relations are moving towards economic ties.

Appreciating the success in the war against terror by Pakistani forces, Holbrooke said the US would extend full assistance in the rehabilitation of the internally displaced persons of Swat, Malakand and other areas where Pakistani forces have launched operation against the militants. He said the US has been impressed by the success of Pakistani forces in the operation against the militants.

He said: “The US is a close friend of democratic Pakistan and it has been proved by the President Obama’s administration in last six months with more interaction with the Pakistani government.”

Holbrooke said on the energy issue, he had been discussing it with the Congress and other officials and he will also visit Karachi to have further discussion with Pakistani officials to resolve it without any further delay for the benefit of the people of Pakistan.

Electricity, Infrastructure, Investment, Pakistan, power

Dawn has a good article on the politics of the pipelines.

Islamabad has little to show for its efforts to secure energy sources over the years, apart from signing numerous memorandums of understanding.

As far back as 1993, an MOU was signed to construct the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project that India later wanted to join. It envisaged a 2,670km land pipeline with a 3,620 mmcfd gas transmission capacity.

A year later, an MoU was signed to bring gas from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan. In 2002 an agreement envisaging a pipeline over 1,271km up to Multan was also signed. It enjoyed US support, but continuing turmoil in Afghanistan, coupled with Turkmenistan’s inability to provide convincing proof of its gas reserves, is preventing progress. Then there is the Qatar-Pakistan pipeline under consideration since April 1992.

Many experts are convinced that it is only the IPI project that is technically viable and economically attractive. But US opposition has prevented any concrete movement on it. In the past year or so, India has lost some of its ardour for it, partly because of the US civilian nuclear deal and partly because of the high price demanded by Iran.

The Pakistani leadership claims to be committed to it, pointing to the presence of Presidents Zardari and Ahmadinejad at the signing ceremony of the gas sale agreement earlier on.

However, a recent controversy is causing concern. The petroleum adviser has resigned a couple of weeks after his startling disclosure that two countries, one western and the other in the Middle East, were applying pressure on Pakistan to abandon the project.

This had come as a rude shock to those who were reminded that the Indian petroleum minister Mani Shankar Aiyar had been eased out soon after his public defence of the project. No less significant was a news report that the country’s premier intelligence agency had expressed its reservations with the project, suggesting that Pakistan look for other options. Now we hear that the entire issue may be placed before parliament where it could be lost in debate for years.

Have we succumbed to external pressure and abandoned the only ‘doable gas pipeline project? The nation deserves to know. In the meanwhile, the world’s major powers are engaged in a frantic search to secure assured sources of energy by building transmission lines to move gas from the energy-rich Gulf and Central Asia to energy-starved Europe.

The latest to be launched is the Nabucco project, for which many of Europe’s statesmen gathered in Ankara last month. They were joined by US special envoy on Eurasian energy issues, Richard Morningstar, who some 10 years earlier had been instrumental in getting everyone on board the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Oil Pipeline project despite Russia’s opposition.

Electricity, Energy, Infrastructure, Pakistan

Found this interesting presentation from IBM about their work on Smart Cities. MASDAR city, which we mentioned before as well. The pdf presentation can be downloaded from this link.

Buildings, Clean Technology, Energy, Infrastructure

SNG is a technology which is based on a mixture of natural gas and air. It is cheaper and has been in use at Gwadar. Excerpts from the Business Recorder story:

Owais Mir, head of SNG providing company in country Dynamic Engineering and Automation said that installation cost of SNG plant is six times lesser than LNG plant whereas the cost of one MMBTU SNG is 25 – 30 percent lesser than LNG.

In Gwadar through SNG technology 60 MMBTU gas per hour is being produced and successfully transmitted to the consumers. Moreover textile and ceramic tile industry have already started having the benefit of SNG as alternative source of energy.

He informed that the developing countries like Argentina, Brazil and Chile etc are managing their natural gas shortage through SNG technology. Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) has also invited bids for such system which will be a mile stone to fulfil the requirement of natural gas in the country

Clean Technology, Gas, Infrastructure LNG, SNG

Here’s a useful article about KESC,Via Nation

Over the years, I have written at least ten ST articles on the power crisis, which has gripped Karachi and the nation for the last 12 years. In the articles, I have narrated how a group of concerned citizens had filed a Public Interest Litigation in the Supreme Court of Pakistan in 98 against PTC, KWSB and KESC, for failing to provide the services for which they were established.

Since then, I have continued to follow the twisted and crooked trail of KESC and have interacted with most of MDs, senior managers and engineers of the organization, including the late Shahid Hamid and Frank Scherschmidt and have yet to find a suitable or appropriate explanation for its failure.

In October last year, I had thought that I had finally reached the end of the trail, when the KESC had announced a massive increase in its tariffs. There was a huge hue and cry from all quarters of the country, including industrialists, commercial and domestic consumers.

Violent protests, burning of tires and attacks on KESC complaint centers were witnessed all over the country and emergency meetings were held at FPCCI, KCCI and SITE Association. Chest thumping, fiery speeches were made and ultimatums and threats of closing down industry were given by the business leaders, if the electricity tariffs were not reduced within three days.

Read more…

Consumers, Electricity, Energy, Infrastructure, Pakistan, power KESC

Pakistan wants to start importing 1 million to 2 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) per year from Qatar in six months, Minister of Investment told Reuters on Monday. Qatar is the world’s largest exporter of LNG and Pakistan needs gas to feed power plants and alleviate chronic shortages of electricity. The two countries have held talks for LNG supply, Waqar Ahmed Khan said.

A Qatari official confirmed talks had taken place but were at a very early stage. “We hope to sign the deal soon,” Khan said. “They agreed during the talks to sell Pakistan one to two million tonnes per year, but there is no deal yet.” LNG is a gas super-chilled to liquid form for export in specially designed tankers.

Pakistan is building a pipeline to receive the gas, and wants to lease a vessel that can convert the LNG back to gas offshore before pumping it into the grid, Khan said. “We are now in negotiations with the companies that own these ships,” Khan said.

Gas, Infrastructure

We have been discussing the meetings regarding the Pak-Iran gas pipeline and now it has been reported that the government has made a decision and signed the accrod. Federal cabinet, without taking the matter to parliament or getting the consent of the government and people of Balochistan, agreed to allow the import of one billion cubic feet of gas from Iran at the rate of 80 per cent of the price of crude oil. However, Iran, desperate to export its gas and other energy resources to regional countries, held a detailed debate on the deal in its parliament. Dawn adds:

Officials from the newly formed Inter State Gas System (ISGS) signed the controversial gas sale-purchase agreement silently in Istanbul. According to the price accord, Pakistan will purchase Iranian gas on various prices; there isn’t a fixed rate, which clearly extends great leverage and benefit to Iran to procure a high price for its exported gas. Iran will sell its gas to Pakistan for $7 per MMBTU, if the Japanese Crude Cocktail (JCC) price is $50 per barrel, $9.4 per MMBTU and $13 per MMBTU if the JCC price touches $70 and $100 per barrel respectively. The price does not include infrastructure, security and other costs.

The imported gas price would be 10 to 20 times more costly than the gas being extracted from Balochistan and Sindh by the central government. Pakistan Petroleum Limited is currently paying only 63 cents per MMBTU for Balochistan’s high heating value gas. However, those 63 cents go straight to the kitty of the central government and Balochistan receives only 12.5 per cent royalty against the gas produced. The level of discrimination and exploitation of Baloch wealth can only be gauged by these figures — Balochistan produces $1.4bn worth of gas annually but receives only $116m in royalties.

There are concerns about the pricing and if Pakistan paid too much.

The price formula and the gas deal with Tehran indicate a great level of injustice as well as the inability of the political and official leadership of the country to negotiate a reasonable price formula with Iran; a country faced with immense global and economic pressures caused by international sanctions.

ISGS officials have said that this rather costly gas will be used for power generation. If this is true, then instead of placing thousands of kilometres of pipelines, the Pakistani establishment could save billions of dollars by simply importing cheap and surplus electricity from Iran which has been offered by the Iranian government. Pakistan could also encourage electricity-generating units to be installed within Balochistan near the border towns and supply the produced electricity through the existing power transmission system to the rest of the country.

There are several other unresolved issues which have been ignored and which will minimise the chances of success for the gas pipeline project. These include Balochistan’s unresolved political conflict in Pakistan and Iran, Tehran and Islamabad’s uneasy relations with the Baloch and Balochistan’s role in the overall gas pipeline project.

Via: Dawn

Gas, Infrastructure, Investment, Pakistan

You may think that data centers can be located wherever real estate is cheap. Tech Review writes about the value of water to conserve electricity and improve efficiency. Check out the placement of data centers in very particular geographic locations.

In addition to bandwidth, data centers need electricity. Lots of it. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that U.S. servers and data centers were responsible for a total of 1.5 percent of America’s electricity consumption in 2006 (about 61 billion kilowatt-hours), at a cost of $4.5 billion, and that their consumption will double by 2011. Not surprisingly, data-center owners have searched out sources of cheap electricity in the hydroelectric dams that dot the Rockies and the Northwest. Washington and Oregon, America’s top two hydroelectric-­producing states, have electricity costs 20 to 30 percent lower than the national average. As a result, small towns in places like the Columbia River basin are enjoying a data-center gold rush, often helped by local authorities who are willing to provide owners with fiber-optic connections to the rest of the world.

Clean Technology, Electricity, Infrastructure, IT, Water

Talks are going on between Pakistan and Iran on the gas pipeline deal. Do you think it will work out or do you think that the conditions are not good for this deal?

Business Recorder writes:

Pakistan and Iran are said to have agreed to resolve the disputes on gas pipeline project in accordance with the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), sources in Petroleum Ministry told Business Recorder.

The two countries are expected to trim the Gas Sale Purchase Agreement (GSPA), possibly during the current week, to materialise the much-delayed multi billion dollars project.

On April 8, 2009, the Federal Cabinet gave approval for the project, subject to the condition that, for the present, Pakistan should not commit to purchasing more than 750 mmcfd gas, against the initial plan of one billion cubic feet, at offered crude oil parity of 80 percent.

Gas, Infrastructure, Pakistan

State of Telecom in Pakistan has a good post about telecom’s role in conserving energy and saving money.

Last year we saw Telenor and Warid vie in the media as the first one to install solar base stations. That was a start and the trend for green, renewable and more efficient solutions will continue. There is a lot more work to be done in the energy conservation and alternative reneable sources of energy for the technology and telecom industry. The infrastructure elements such as base stations consume significant energy and the data centers needed to run the IT operations are also major energy spenders. The infrastructure sharing idea promoted in Pakistan was also a good point in theory but its actual success has not been reported yet.

Typically, around half of the operating expenditure of a network company is spent on electricity, according to Ericsson. The proportion tends to be higher for operators in the developing world because their base-stations may be in remote areas, and therefore require diesel-fuelled generators. So the recent spike in energy prices has prompted operators to look for ways to cut costs.

The Economist ran a story about green telecom networks and ways to conserve energy in the telecom world. Good tips for saving energy from Economist.com include:

There are some relatively simple ways to reduce the energy consumption of a base-station. The first is to turn down the air-conditioning. Many mobile operators now run base-stations at a standard temperature of 35ºC, rather than the previous norm of 25-30ºC. Studies show that the higher temperature does not reduce the equipment’s reliability or life expectancy. “The biggest restriction is actually our technicians, who do not like going into the hut to work at 35 degrees,” says Andy MacLeod, Vodafone’s global networks director.

Operating at this temperature means ambient air can be used for cooling, even in hot countries. An air-filter is installed on one side of the cabin, and a fan is installed on the other, resulting in a steady flow of air. Vodafone plans to replace air-conditioning with this simpler approach, called “freecooling”, in the majority of its base-stations over the next three years, as part of a plan to reduce its carbon footprint by 50% between 2006 and 2020.

Conservation, Electricity, Energy, Environment, Green, Infrastructure Pakistan, telecom