ISLAMABAD, Feb 8: The government on Thursday approved a plan to set up 11 power projects to cope with expected energy shortage of about 2000MW in coming years.

A mix of hydel-, coal- and gas-based projects, the $5.4 billion power projects would generate about 4,200 MW of electricity in three to seven years.

A meeting of the Private Power and Infrastructure Board (PPIB) presided over by Minister for Water and Power Liaquat Ali Jatoi decided to issue letters of interest to AES Corporation of the United States and Mitsui Corporation of Japan to conduct feasibility studies and then set up two power projects of 1000-1200MW each to be based on imported coal.

The coal-based projects would take about five years to start production with an estimated cost of $2.5 billion. The sponsors would be required to complete their feasibility studies in about one year and then complete construction of projects in about four years.

The board directed Wapda to instal a 100MW power plant in Khuzdar on a fast-track basis to improve the power supply situation in Balochistan, particularly in the Khuzdar area.

The meeting also approved a decision of the prime minister to set up another 450MW power plant based on low quality gas from the Uch field in Balochistan, instead of Sindh. These two projects are estimated to cost about $550 million.

The board approved issuance of letters of interest to various local and foreign firms to set up seven hydropower projects in the NWFP and Azad Kashmir with a total investment of about $2.4 billion. These projects would generate about 1620MW of power.

These include 197MW Kalam-Asrit Hydropower Project, and 209MW Asrit-Kedam Hydropower Project (both to be located in Swat) and 548MW Kaigah Hydropower Project (district Kohistan) NWFP.

The hydro projects to be located in Azad Kashmir include 240MW Karot Hydropower Project, Kotli, 65MW Sehra ŠHydropower Project, District Poonch, 222MW Azad Pattan Hydropower Project at Sudhnoti, and 139MW Chakothi Hattian Hydropower Project at Muzzaffarabad.

The meeting had been convened as a follow-up of an earlier meeting presided over by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz a few days ago that had decided to speed up implementation of projects which had been in the pipeline for quite some time to meet energy shortages rising continuously by 10 to 12 per cent per annum.

While a number of projects -- mostly high-cost thermal -- have been lined up for commercial production after 2008, the immediate shortages expected to be up 2000MW in coming summer season could partially be met through about 300MW to be generated by two power projects recently imported form the United States on rental basis.

The tariff, however, of almost all the thermal power projects would average between 13 to 18 cents per unit on a levelized basis. Their tariff would, however, keep on going up continuously to reach about 29 cents per unit after 20 years or so, translating into Rs17 per unit from the current rate of about Rs4 per unit.