Pak to add 30,000 MW of electricity to national grid: Sharif

Energy-starved Pakistan will add about 30,000 megawatts of electricity to its national grid by 2022 as part of a strategy to end power deficiency to boost the national economy, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said today.
Sharif chaired a meeting to review the progress on various energy-related projects at the Prime Minister's House here and was given a detailed briefing on the capacity and timeline for completion of various ongoing power projects in Pakistan.
The meeting was informed that around 10,996 MW of power will be added to the national grid by March 2018 against an expected generation shortfall of 7,000 to 8,000 MW, estimated for 2017-18.

"The significant addition of power to the national grid will eliminate load shedding from the country," a Prime Minister's House statement said.
The meeting was further briefed that work on improving the transmission system is going on in all parts of the country, which is closely monitored by the Ministry of Water and Power.
The system augmentation work for carrying the additional capacity will be completed by the end of 2017, which will make the country's 90 per cent transmission system constraint-free, the briefing said.

The Prime Minister said getting rid of power shortages is essential for realising the huge economic potential of the country, which was unfortunately ignored by the successive governments in last 15 years.

"The tireless efforts of the present government are not only restricted to end power shortages from the country by 2018 as the long term plans of the government include production of more than 30,000 MWs of electricity by 2022," Sharif said.
Pakistan has been facing crippling power shortage badly hampering economic growth and disturbing the domestic life of the people.
Sharif had promised to end power shortage and already announced that the summer of 2018 will be free of power outages. Elections are also due to be held in that year.