Senate standing committee discusses hydropower projects in KP

A meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Power was held on Monday under the chairmanship of Senator Mohsin Aziz to discuss the 207 MW Madyan and 88 MW Gabral Kalam hydropower projects in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,  reported 24NewsHD TV Channel.

The meeting was attended by Senators Mirza Muhammad Afridi, Special Assistant to the Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Energy and Power, Tariq Mahmood Khan Sadozai, Energy Minister Owais Ahmed Leghari, Senator Ahmed Khan, and Additional Secretary Power.

During the meeting, Senator Mohsin Aziz said that they were missing Shibli Faraz today, as he was quite active in the committee, but unfortunately, he was de-notified.

The Chairman of the Committee paid tribute to Shibli Faraz for his services, and the committee members showed respect and patted their hands on the desk.

The Chairman also welcomed Senator Mirza Afridi to the committee meeting and expressed that the committee needs you.

During the sessions, Senator Mirza Muhammad Afridi said that Rs14 billion had been spent on a project, but it was still stalled. He said that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had only one source of electricity, and if this too were stalled, it would be a great injustice. He paid tribute to the ministry for closing down IPPs and expressed his happiness at the closure of five IPPs. He added that the protected category should have been increased to 250 units instead of 200 units.

Special Assistant to the Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Energy and Power, Tariq Mahmood Khan Sadozai, said that there was not much electricity in the country and called for improving the transmission system. Tariq Sadozai stated that these two projects had been committed in IG SAP.

The Special Assistant to the Chief Minister KP said that they had purchased land worth Rs5 billion for these projects. He added that ISMO had changed the criteria between the projects. He expressed that physical and financial progress of the projects had been made and that these projects had now been removed from the list by the federal government.

Tariq Sadozai said that the government could not transmit more than 23,000 MW of electricity and that if the transmission system were improved, electricity would not remain abundant. He recalled that he had said in CCI from 2016 to 2018 that there would be electricity, but it would not be possible to transmit it.

Energy Minister Owais Ahmed Leghari stated that KP officials had not explained the CCI-approved power policy correctly. He added that the remaining provisions of this policy should have been read as well, noting that it was not right to explain by reading only one provision of the policy.

Leghari asked whether the IG SAP had been approved once or was a dynamic document. He explained that this meant if electricity was purchased from these two projects, it would become expensive. He emphasized that these projects were not based on any investor’s investment, but only on a loan from the World Bank.

He informed the committee that none of the captive power plants had gone bankrupt. “We terminated the IPPs, which benefited the consumers, and we saved Rs3,400 billion for the next four to five years,” he said. The Energy Minister stated that they had removed the burden of 10 thousand MW from the country.

Leghari said that IG SAP had been deposited in NEPRA and that the government would not buy electricity anymore. The Federal Minister for Energy shared that they had achieved the goal of a competitive market and freed the government from buying electricity.

He remarked, “If this is cheap electricity, go and take a loan from the World Bank and build it.” Owais Leghari added that since June 2024, the industry’s tariff had been reduced by 30 to 35 percent.

Owais Leghari said that this year the loss of DISCOs had been reduced by Rs191 billion, calling it a big task. He admitted that electricity was being stolen in the country.

Senator Ahmed Khan asked whose permission had been taken for acquiring the land. Chairman Committee Mohsin Aziz said that captive power plants had been installed at the request of the country. The Chairman Committee said that then all captive power plants had been cut off as if they had become non-religious. He expressed whether KP had been abused in these projects or not. Mohsin Aziz said that the KP government had again sat with the federal government on these projects.

Additional Secretary Power said that the Gabral Power Project had not been contracted to date. He said that it was not just these two projects; they had taken out projects ranging from 8 to 10 thousand MW, and they had even taken out several power projects of CPEC. The Secretary Power Division said that they were reviewing the protected categories twice. Subsidies were being given on electricity to consumers up to 200 units, the Secretary Power Division added.

At the end, Chairman Committee Mohsin Aziz stressed that the protected category policy should have been reconsidered and that it would have been better if these projects had been completed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.