ISLAMABAD, July 30: At a meeting of the Council of Common Interests (CCI) to be held on Wednesday the government will present an amended draft of its energy policy, now renamed as the National Power Policy, 2013. It proposes to offer uninterrupted, albeit expensive, supply of electricity. The policy first moved at a CCI meeting on July 23 and referred to an inter-provincial committee.

The new draft, a copy of which is available with DawnNews, has a number of new proposals that were not in the earlier draft. The policy recommends a raise in power tariff ranging from Rs3 to 7 per unit for different categories of consumers.

The policy proposes a reduction in the use of gas in transport sector, increase in CNG price and a raise in power and gas tariff for all sectors, except the poor domestic consumers.

The policy proposes uninterrupted power supply at higher rates to commercial and industrial consumers and to those who can afford generators. After paying the required charges to power distribution companies (Discos) or National Transmission Dispatch Company (NTDC), the generation companies would be able to provide uninterrupted supply to the private sector.

Under the new policy, power tariff would stay at Rs10/unit till 2017.

Although the new draft does not mention the ratio of increase in the prices of electricity and gas, officials of petroleum and power ministries indicate that the power tariff will be increased by Rs3 to 7 per unit for all consumers except the poor domestic consumers and the increase in CNG price will range between Rs20 to 35 per kg. A raise in gas tariff ranging from Rs100 to Rs600/mmbtu for all except small domestic consumers will also be made. The gas tariff for fertiliser, industrial and commercial sectors and for captive power plants will be at par with the price of furnace oil.

The new policy also suggests diversion of gas to the power sector. A 10 per cent gas diversion can generate 2,000MW of electricity.

The government is reported to be actively considering innovative business models, including various wholesale business models supported by wheeling charges. These models will likely allow generation companies to sell electricity to NTDC, Discos and the private sector. Successful implementation of these models will encourage rapid investments in power generation and take generation closer to load centres.

Significant efforts will be made for building medium- and long-term hydel capacity. Six projects of 388MW hydel power are expected to be completed by February 2015. The smaller Patrind and Gulpur hydropower projects are expected to be completed by December 2017 and will add 247MW to the grid.

An additional 969MW is anticipated from the Neelum-Jhelum HPP (hydropower project) by November 2016.

A number of hydel projects are expected to come online in 2017, including the fourth and fifth Tarbela expansions which have the potential to add 1,910MW (1,410MW in fourth expansion, 500MW in the fifth).

The government is expected to announce a ‘coal corridor’ with a capacity to generate 6000-7000MW in near future.