Seeking approval for hydropower projects

Khyber Pukhtunkhwa government has sent 157 megawatt Swat hydropower project and 87 megawatt Gabral Kalam hydel electricity generation project to the federal government for ECNEC approval. Merely sending such projects of inexpensive electricity generation schemes to the federal government does not ensure its early approval and execution. The hydropower generation projects for which ECNEC approval is sought far may have been sent by the previous governments as well and their files may be rotting in the Planning Commission.

The benefit of cheap electricity generation is not accruing to all categories of consumers in Khyber Pukhtunkhwa. The wheeling agreements with PESCO for providing electricity at affordable price to industrial consumers will have limited impact. The chronic issues of power outages and inflated electricity tariff can be resolved when the province has its own transmission and distribution system. It is worth appreciation that Khyber Pukhtunkhwa Cabinet had already approved setting up its own Power Transmission and Distribution Company to facilitate the transmission and sale of inexpensive hydel power to different categories of consumers. For this purpose, the provincial government will lay its electricity transmission network and build grid stations. It merits mention here that former Chairman WAPDA, Engineer Fazal Shah, in his visit of Peshawar in 2015, had made an offer of providing technical expertise in the formulation of provincial hydel energy policy. But the energy policy for tapping the tremendous hydropower potential, its transmission and distribution with low line losses, cannot be formulated during the tenure of previous PTI government in the province because of skewed priorities.

The provincial government will need the support of federal government in building the infrastructure for decentralized and local distribution of electricity along with determination of tariff by National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA). Khyber Pukhtunkhwa could not inject 70 megawatt cheap hydel power into the national grid for several years because of delaying tactics of NEPRA. Hopefully, the financial and technical obstacles that hinder the establishment of Provincial Power Transmission and Distribution Company may be removed at the earliest.