Coal to tide over the energy crisis

Pakistan is blessed with coal reserves of 185 billion tonnes out of which 175 billion tonnes are located in Thar desert of Sindh. These were discovered in 1992. The reserve is second largest in the world. Put to proper use it is sufficient to meet country’s energy needs for centuries. Its existing contribution is only 150MW of electricity as against the existing potential of 19,000MW. The earlier energy crisis that developed in 1990 was solved by generating electricity in the private sector with the help of Independent Power Producers (JPPs). Those projects consumed imported oil and supplied power to the consumer at exorbitant rates. Presently it is the brutal use of indigenous gas for power production. The gas is in short supply and is primarily meant to be used for domestic purposes. Its reserves are running out very fast. Moreover gas based power generation is not an economic proposition. As per WAPDA’s 2000 estimates cost of production of electric power from gas was nearly double than that of coal. World’s 40% electricity is produced from coal. The share of nuclear power is 16%, natural gas 15% and hydro 19%. With technical advancements the thermal efficiency of modem coal power plants has greatly enhanced. From 35% it is being improved to 40% by China. EU has plans to launch next generation of coal power plants with thermal efficiency of 55%. As per UK and EU energy directives it is estimated that by 2030 nearly 14000GWs of new coal fired capacity will be built worldwide to provide 38% of global electricity needs. Even presently, China gets 80% of its electricity needs from coal. India 55% USA 50% Germany 48% Australia 45% and UK 33% Not all these countries are self-sufficient in coal. Pakistan is more than self-sufficient in coal. Its coal is also cheap and is of high quality but its coal based power supply is only 0.7% of the total generation capacity. There  was a plan to install a coal based power plant of 1000MW in Thar, some time ago, which has been abandoned for unknown reasons. It should be immediately revived. Coal should be made use f as a major power producing fuel to overcome energy crisis.