The government has invited prospective independent power producers to establish coal-based power plants of cumulative capacity of 9,780MW by the year 2022, when the total power generation, as planned, would be 34,500MW.

This means coal’s share in power generation works out at 28pc, which is very encouraging. But, sadly, all of these projects — excluding the 1,200MW Thar coal-based Engro project — are proposed to run on imported coal. This will be disastrous to the local coal mining industry, which is still in a nascent stage of development.

Pursuant to the policy of increasing the share of coal in the overall energy mix, the National Power Generation Plan of 2005 had envisaged additional power generation of 1,260MW by 2010, and a further 7,570MW by 2015, from indigenous coal.

Many projects based on Thar coal were allowed. Letters of Interest were issued by the Private Power and Infrastructure Board (PPIB) to CMC, China, and the Dadabhoy Group for respectively developing 405MW and 205MW integrated mining-cum-power generation projects at Sonda-Jheruk coalfield.

Likewise, the Habibullah and Fateh Groups were interested in constructing power stations of 150MW and 200MW capacity, respectively, using Lakhra coal. But these plans did not materialise.

The first private indigenous coal-based power station is owned and operated in Sindh by the SSJD Group. The 15MW plant was commissioned in 2010 and supplies electricity to the K-Electric network. Investors acquired 100 sq-km of the Badin coalfield on a 30-year mining lease for the project. Its capacity would be enhanced to 600MW in a phase-wise manner.

Sindh has the most abundant coal resources of about 184,700m tonnes, though mostly of low grade.

Wapda’s 150MW coal-fired power station at Khanot (Dadu), based on Lakhra coal, was commissioned during 1995-1996. The plant — constructed by the Chinese on a turn-key basis — employed obsolete technology and reportedly ran into snags from its early days. It never accomplished its optimum effective capacity and has been operating at hardly one-third of its installed capacity for many years. Still, its generation cost is just Rs2.61 per kWh.

Sadly, no scheme has been planned, envisaged or implemented to rehabilitate and upgrade old coal-based plants or to expand their capacities. And despite vast reserves, the supply of coal is also uncertain.

The Lakhra Coal Mining Co, a government entity, was unable to supply the required and committed amount of coal to the power station on a regular basis, resulting in the power plant blending indigenous coal with imported coal. The Lakhra coalfield has measured reserves of 244m tonnes and currently produces over 1m tonnes annually.

A large field of high sub-bituminous coal was identified in the Badin district and its adjoining areas in southern Sindh in October 2009. While the prospecting and exploration would be completed in 2016, the Geological Survey of Pakistan has estimated inferred reserves of 7bn tonnes. Other coalfields, besides the largest at Thar, are Sonda-Jheruk, Ongar, Indus East and Meting-Jhampir. Thar and Lakhra coalfields are viable for large-scale mechanised mining.

In fact, Pakistan has 185,174m tonnes of coal, with measured reserves of over 3,400m tonnes. Of these, 60pc are currently mineable and are located across all the four provinces and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK).

The indigenous coal is generally classified from lignite to sub-bituminous and bituminous, of high quality and heating value, and is considered suitable for power generation. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has Hangu-Orakzai and Cherat-Gullakhel coalfields, which are developed for mining. AJK has more than 8m tonnes of coal reserves in the Kotli area.

The Sor Range-Deghari in Balochistan is one example of a developed coalfield, and has proven reserves of 15m tonnes. Yet, the government has failed both in constructing any additional power plant here and in attracting private investors.

Other developed coalfields in the province include Khost-Shahrig-Harnai, Duki, Mach Abe-gum, Pir Ismail Ziarat and Chamlong-Bala Dhaka. Habibullah Mines had proposed to establish a 25MW power plant at Quetta utilising coal from the Sor Range-Deghari coalfield, but it did not materialise.

Balochistan has about 458m tonnes of coal reserves in these areas, while exploration and evaluation of coal has been undertaken in Loralai and Kohlu districts, and in the Ghazij Basin and Raghni area in Sharig Tehsil. Average annual coal extraction in the province is over 2m tonnes and is being used for industrial and commercial purposes, but not for power generation.

Punjab has developed the Salt Range and Makarwal coalfields, which have total reserves of over 235m tonnes. At present, there are at least 40m tonnes of mineable reserves. Exploration of tertiary coal in the central Salt Range has been undertaken recently.

In spite of a number of plans to establish small mine-mouth power plants at various locations, both by the government and the private sector, not a single scheme has seen the light of day.

The writer is a former Chairman of the State Engineering Corporation

Published in Dawn, Economic & Business, December 8th , 2014