Earlier this week we heard of PSO warning the government of the upcoming power crisis if the case of circular debts is taken up. It is now learned that PSO gets enough founds to keep supplies on to the IPPs. Express Tribune report gives the details.

The finance ministry has released Rs12 billion on an urgent basis to Pakistan State Oil (PSO) in order to help the public-sector oil marketing company avoid default. The release comes a day after the PSO management suspended supplies of furnace oil to independent power providers Hub Power Company (Hubco) and Kot Addu Power Company (Kapco).

“The finance ministry released a payment of Rs12 billion to PSO today (Saturday) and has also given assurances that another Rs24 billion will be paid to the company by Tuesday, September 21,” the PSO spokesperson told The Express Tribune. “In light of the release and commitments, we are resuming supplies to Hubco and Kapco.”

But analysts commented that the latest move by the finance ministry is a stop-gap arrangement at best. “The government will have to come up with a comprehensive solution to inter-corporate debt,” pointed out Khurram Shehzad, Research Head at InvestCap.

The PSO management has also highlighted that the company is facing difficulties in collecting outstanding receivables worth more than Rs149 billion from its customers. “About Rs120 billion of these outstanding dues are owed by the power sector,” said the company’s spokesperson.

PSO’s profitability has suffered because of mounting receivables. In the last fiscal year, the company’s financing cost stood at a towering Rs9 billion.

Petroleum ministry officials claim they are working on a permanent fix for circular debt but sources have informed that hopes for an early solution have been dashed by recent floods in the country as a plan to divert funds from the budget to meet power sector dues has been shelved in favour of flood relief efforts.

Prior to the release of funds by the finance ministry, PSO had also delayed the awarding of import tenders for the months of October and November. The delayed orders would have been for about 650,000 tons of petroleum products and a delay or cancellation in delivery may hold dire consequences for the country’s energy sector. Even after these assurances, the supply of fuel in the country remains choked.

Sources have disclosed that a decision on whether import orders will be scaled down or restored to prior plans will be taken by the senior management on Monday.

Meanwhile, PSO’s managing director, Irfan Qureshi, has asserted that the company has an abundant stock of petrol. While talking to reporters on Saturday, he reiterated that the issue of circular debt must be addressed on a long-term basis.

Pakistan Ministry of Water and Power would provide electricity to around 100 villages through solar energy during this year as part of its programme to ensure light in every village of the country. Electrification through Renewable Energy Technologies in remote and off-grid villages of country is the prime focus of the government which has initiated projects not only to overcome power shortage but also to electrify the remotest parts, said an official at the Ministry.

The official said a project has already been approved to electrify 400 remote villages of Sindh and Balochistan through solar energy. Around 49 villages (3000 households) have been electrified in district Tharparker using solar energy through government own funds.

The funds for remaining work in Sindh and the projects in Balochistan are being negotiated with the donors and are expected to be initiated during this year. Moreover, 100 Solar Home Systems in three villages of district Dera Bugti, 119 Solar Home Systems in 10 villages of Deh Tiko Baran district Jamshoro, Sindh and 200 Solar Home Systems in 16 Villages of district Khuzdar, Balochistan are also being installed through which thousands of people would be facilitated.

The official said in view of the electricity crises in the country the government has given a serious thought to both short and long-term measures. Public sector hydro plants with generation capacity of 347 MW will be added to the system at a cost of US $500 million and 1,700 MW of high efficiency public sector thermal generation would start generation between end 2010 and upto 2012. The outlay for these projects is estimated as US $1.5 billion.

The official further informed that Wapda has been assigned construction of 32 small and medium dams in four provinces and Fata. The plan will be implemented in two phases as in first phase (2009-2013) 12 dams and in second phase 20 dams will be constructed during the period 2010-2014.

A dam across Sirran River is also included in second phase of the plan, the official said and added the engineering study of Sirran Dam in district Mansehra (NWFP) on Sirran River will be initiated during this year. When asked whether there is any proposal to get 1100 Megawatt electricity from Iran to control power crisis, the official said two possible projects of electricity imports are being processed.

Giving details, the official said import of 100 MW power from Iran for Gwadar which includes construction of a 220 KV Grid Station at Gwadar and 75 km associated 220 KV double circuit Transmission Line from Pak-Iran Border to Gwadar. The project is intended to be financed by Export Development Bank of Iran (EDBI) for which negotiation with the Bank is in progress.

The Project is expected to be completed by year 2011. The other project is import of 1000 MW power from Iran for the National Grid. The final report along with the detailed financial analysis based on techno-economic studies and the implementation plan for the project will be submitted by the consultants soon. Further action could be taken depending upon the outcome of the feasibility study and arrangement for the financing of project.

The project may take 4-5 years from commencement of the project implementation activities. This is envisaged to take care of a substantial level of demand of Balochistan and the South-East of Pakistan. Moreover, construction work on new dams is expected to be started during the next two years, which included Diamer Basha Dam, Kurm Tangi Dam Project and Munda Dam.

Giving province wise names of the small and medium dam projects where construction work is expected to be started during next two years, the official said in Balochistan they are Hingol Dam, Naulong Dam, Winder Dam, Garuk Dam and Pelar Dam. In Sindh they are Nai Gaj Dam, Darwat Dam and Sita Dam, in NWFP Bara Dam and Daraban Zam Dam and in Punjab they are Ghabir Dam and Papin Dam.

Google has asked for approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to become an electricity marketer, essentially giving it the authority to buy and sell bulk power at market prices, just the way large utilities and energy traders do. Via WSJ.

Google’s power usage is unclear; it doesn’t disclose how many data centers it operates or where each is located. Last April, it said its data centers were the most efficient in the world, so far as it was able to determine, but declined to say how much power it actually uses.

Rich Miller, editor of Data Center Knowledge, an online publication that tracks the data center industry, says he has identified about 24 Google data centers. He says it is common for large centers run by Internet companies to consume 30 to 50 megawatts of energy capacity.

Google’s largest data centers could use even more. A data center consuming 10 megawatts is about what a subdivision of single-family homes consumes. Based on an estimate of 24 large data centers, Google’s energy need would be roughly equivalent to the output of two large conventional power plants.

In 2007, Google announced its intention to become “carbon neutral,” meaning it would take actions to neutralize the effects of carbon dioxide produced in the course of furnishing its buildings and data centers with electricity. It installed a 1.6-megawatt solar array on its headquarters building and has been trying to obtain green power, when available.

If its FERC request is granted, “we could go directly to a renewable energy project and buy power for our operations,” says Google spokeswoman Niki Fenwick. The company also wants the ability to enter into contracts for carbon offsets.

Google’s FERC application could also potentially allow the company to play a much larger role in energy markets, even becoming a wholesaler of electricity to other big buyers.

In its application, the company said it was reserving for itself the right to “act as a power marketer, purchasing electricity and reselling it to wholesale customers,” and trading “in the bulk power markets, such as arranging…transmission and fuel supplies.”

Government has finally come out with directives to to the State Engineering Corporation to explore manufacturing of windmills turbines locally. The ministry of industries is currently evaluating international tenders for the installation of wind mills in the coastal areas of Sindh, which have been termed as potential source of wind energy by the donor community.

Federal Minister for Industries and Production Mian Manzur Wattoo asked the chairman of State Engineering to explore the possibility of manufacturing windmill turbines at the Pakistan Machine Tool Factory in Karachi for power generation through windmills.

While the ministry was examining the technical and financial aspects of the windmill projects, Mr Wattoo directed the officials to complete review of the project expeditiously as the government was serious to promote low-cost windmill power generation in the country.

Pakistan has considerable potential of wind energy in the coastal belt of Sindh and Balochistan as well as in the desert areas of Punjab and Sindh. In view of the existing potential and the anticipated future energy needs, the government had set a target of at least five per cent of the total national power generation through renewable energy, especially wind by the year 2030.

The wind data has been collected from Pakistan Metrological Department and analysed by Alternative Energy Development Board (AEDB).

The data provides that the coastal belt of Pakistan wind corridor is 60km wide (Gharo-Keti Bandar) and 180km long up to Hyderabad. This corridor has the exploitable potential of 50,000MW of electricity generation through windmills.

According to a report of Asian Development Bank on Energy Security, wind power has been a very successful technology, growing rapidly worldwide. Since 2001, installed capacity has grown by 20 to 30 per cent a year. In 2007 alone, $31 billion worth was added, bringing global capacity to 94 GW.

Today, most of the world’s wind power capacity is land-based. The size of onshore wind turbines has increased steadily over the last 25 years. Large turbines can usually deliver electricity at a lower average cost than smaller ones.

Via Dawn

Four Rental Power Plants (RPPs) with about 600 MW power generation capacity would be operational by the year-end. Director General Pakistan Electric Power Company (Pepco), Mohammad Khalid, told Busiiness Recorder here on Friday. It would be followed by addition of another 1200 MW by coming March, hence the total power generation capacity would reach 1800 MW by then, he said.

It would help bring down the demand and supply gap and the Pepco would only have to announce marginal load-shedding in the months of May and June next year, he added. Khalid said no load-shedding is being conducted anywhere in the country, both on domestic and commercial fronts, by Pepco at present. When asked about slow progress on execution of RPPs, Khalid said that the investors’ are reviving their confidence gradually and this phenomenon would ultimately be overcome soon.

Via Business Recorder

Keeping coal as an abundant source of power means slashing the amount of carbon dioxide it produces. That could mean new, more efficient power plants. But trapping C02 from existing plants—about two billion tons a year—would be the real game-changer.

Source: Vattenfall

Carbon dioxide is removed from smokestack gases and compressed. It’s then pumped deep underground and stored in porous rock formations.

Techniques for modest-scale CO2 capture exist, but applying them to big power plants would reduce the plants’ output by a third and double the cost of producing power. So scientists are looking into experimental technologies that could cut emissions by 90% while limiting cost increases.

Nearly all are in the early stages, and it’s too early to tell which method will win out. One promising technique burns coal and purified oxygen in the form of a metal oxide, rather than air; this produces an easier-to-capture concentrated stream of CO2 with little loss of plant efficiency. The technology has been demonstrated in small-scale pilots, and will be tried in a one-megawatt test plant next year. But it might not be ready for commercial use until 2020.

Via WSJ

Cross Post from TelecomPk.net

Telecom companies in Pakistan are one of the major power consumers and in addition to the increasing cost of electricity, they also face the challenge of lack of access to the electricity grid in rural areas to supply power to base stations. A few pilot deployments of  solar powered base stations were luanched earlier.Now Telenor Pakistan and Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) have signed an agreement that will provide NSN’s off-grid site solutions that use solar energy to power Telenor base station sites in rural and remote areas. This is expected to result in substantial cost savings for Telenor Pakistan along with the social benefits that come with using renewable and clean energy.

Nokia Siemens Networks will design the sites, taking into account local solar mapping, site landscape and other factors to maximize the use of an abundant, clean, and natural energy source. Nokia Siemens Networks’ Green Energy Control will help deliver a sustainable solution while optimizing operating costs.

The solar-powered sites will be implemented using Universal Services Fund (USF) that was awarded to Telenor Pakistan in 2009. USF-based contracts aim to provide access to mobile services for underserved and unserved areas of Pakistan. Telenor Pakistan, till now, has been awarded three USF contracts for Mirpurkhas, Malakand and Bahawalpur region.

“It’s important that we connect the world in such a way that not only maximizes benefits for consumers and businesses, but also ensures the welfare of our planet,” said Saad Waraich, the Pakistan country director for Nokia Siemens Networks. “Providing communications to rural areas will become increasingly important and we believe renewable energy will be the first choice for such installations. In fact, the majority of base station sites installed by us by 2011 will use this form of energy. We are especially proud to partner with Telenor – a definite trend setter for the use of environmental technologies in network expansion.”

The GSMA has estimated that more than 75,000 new off-grid sites will be built each year through 2012 in developing countries. About 80% of the energy in a typical mobile telecommunication network is consumed by base stations. Renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power offer a reliable alternative to sites with limited or non-existent electrical grid access. Nokia Siemens Networks has already deployed more than 360 sites that exploit renewable energy and has over 25 years of experience in implementing solar-powered sites.

Source: Nokia Siemens Press Release

Dawn has posted a story about illegal power connections in Karachi. The power theft has been a huge problem for the longest time and no one has had the courage to stop it.

There are over 650,000 illegal electricity connections in Karachi, hooked directly into main power lines, and this is one of the main reasons behind long bouts of loadshedding in the city.

This was stated by Minister for Power Raja Pervez Ashraf in reply to a supplementary question by MQM’s Khushbakht Shujaat.

The government, Mr Ashraf said, was trying to improve the system by registering criminal cases against people stealing power.

Mr Ashraf said: “Only during the past nine months, we have registered around one million criminal cases of stealing electricity across the country.”

Recently, he said, the ministry had dismissed 43 officers found involved in electricity theft.

If the government could not handle line losses in major cities like Karachi, how could it cope with electricity theft in rural areas, Mr Kishan Chand Parwani of the PML-Q asked.

Jamshed Dasti, PPP MNA from Muzzafargarah, said that he had received several complaints of over-billing in his constituency, which Wapda transferred to small consumers to hide its own negligence.

The minister said that any discrepancy in electricity bill could immediately be corrected at a Wapda complaint cell.

The Water and Power Ministry has received an appalling 15.6 percent of total budgetary allocation for the first quarter of the current year, an amount that flagrantly disregards the critical contribution of this ministry to not only national output, but also to serious issues of households-related to water and power deficiency in the country.

The Finance Ministry provided Rs 2.8 billion during the first quarter (July-September) of 2009-10 financial year to the Water and Power Ministry as against the total committed quarterly allocation, amounting to Rs 17.85 billion. During three-day PSDP review meeting held recently, the Finance Ministry gave top priority to the Ministries of Petroleum and Natural Resources, Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority (PNRA), Ports and Shipping, Communication, Population, Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) and Health Ministry.

The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources received 85 percent of the budgetary allocations, amounting to Rs 170 million as against the request of Rs 200 million in the first quarter.

The Finance Ministry gave second priority to Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority (PNRA), which received 75.1 percent of the committed funds, amounting to Rs 82.5 million as against the committed amount of Rs 109.8 million in the first quarter. The Ministry of Ports and Shipping received 72.2 percent fund releases, amounting to Rs 16 million as against the requirement of Rs 22 million in the first quarter.

Via Business Recorder

Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd. (NYSE: STP), the world’s largest crystalline silicon
photovoltaic (PV) module manufacturer, announced today that it has entered
into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Pakistan’s Alternative Energy
Development Board (AEDB) to work towards the widespread use of solar energy
technologies to meet the energy shortage in Pakistan.

The objective of the MOU is to facilitate cooperation between Suntech and
the public sector and private companies in Pakistan to help implement solar
programs including the AEDB’s Rural Electrification Program; the development
of Solar Power Pumping Systems with the AEDB and the World Bank; and Solar
Power Telecom Projects in collaboration with Pakistani telecom companies.
“We are proud to collaborate with the Alternative Energy Development Board
to bring the latest in crystalline silicon solar technology to Pakistan,” said
Dr. Zhengrong Shi, Suntech’s Chairman and CEO. “This is a clear example of the
promise of solar energy in meeting growing demands for electricity in the
developing world in an environmentally friendly way. With rapid improvements
in solar energy technology and operational efficiency, solar energy is
establishing itself as a crucial, cost-competitive part of the global energy
mix.”

“We are very pleased to be working with Suntech towards developing clean
renewable energy in our country,” said Mr. Masood Khan, Pakistan’s Ambassador
to China. “Pakistan is committed to using solar power as a way to solve
Pakistan’s energy shortage, and we are confident in Suntech’s reputation as a
global industry leader to bring reliable environmentally sustainable solutions
to Pakistan’s growing energy needs.”
The MOU sets forth the agreement in principle of the parties concerning
the project and related activities. Final agreement between the parties is
subject to the negotiation and execution of definitive agreements among the
parties.

About the Alternative Energy Development Board (AEDB)
The Alternative Energy Development Board was created by the government of
Pakistan in 2003. The board is comprised of twelve members and chaired by Mr.
Raja Pervez Ashraf. The functions of the Board are to develop national
strategy, policies and plans for utilization of alternative and renewable
energy resources to achieve the targets approved by the Federal Government, to
act as a forum for evaluating, monitoring and certification of alternative or
renewable energy projects and products, to act as a coordinating agency for
commercial application of alternative or renewable technology, and to
facilitate power generation through alternative or renewable energy resources.
For more information, please visit http://www.aedb.org .

About Suntech
Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd. (NYSE: STP) is the world’s leading solar
energy company as measured by production output of crystalline silicon solar
modules. Suntech designs, develops, manufactures, and markets premium quality,
high-output, cost-effective and environmentally friendly solar products for
electric power applications in the residential, commercial, industrial, and
public utility sectors. Suntech’s patent-pending Pluto technology for
crystalline silicon solar cells improves power output by up to 12% compared to
conventional production methods. Suntech also offers one of the broadest
ranges of building-integrated solar products.

Suntech designs and delivers commercial and utility scale solar power
systems in China and the United States. With regional headquarters in China,
Switzerland and San Francisco and sales offices worldwide, Suntech is
passionate about improving the environment we live in and dedicated to
developing advanced solar solutions that enable sustainable development. For
more information, please visit http://www.suntech-power.com .