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U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced that the United States government will contribute $125 million for the first phase of a Signature Energy Program aimed at increasing electricity output and conserving wasted energy and money in Pakistan. Secretary Clinton made the announcement following her meeting with Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi in Islamabad on October 28th.
The 6 projects announced by Secretary Clinton will focus on reducing electricity blackouts that interfere with commerce and have plagued the Pakistani economy.
The projects include replacing or repairing 11,000 agricultural irrigation tube well pumps, a major component of electricity consumption used by a majority of farmers across Pakistan and rehabilitating, refurbishing, and upgrading targeted components of the Jamshoro, Muzaffagarh, and Guddu Thermal Power Stations to recapture significant amounts of their lost capacity.
Improvements will be made at Jamshoro Thermal Power station, which sits on the banks of the Indus River near the city of Hyderabad in Sindh Province. This will result in an additional 530 Gigawatthours [530 billion watts or million kilowatt hours] per year of electricity for the national grid. The Muzaffargarh Thermal Power Station, located near the city of Multan in Punjab Province, will also receive an upgrade resulting in 165 Megawatts [165 million watts] and a production of approximately 1,185 Gigawatthours (or million kilowatt hours) per year of electricity for the national grid. This is expected to save $17 million a year in fuel costs.
A targeted rehabilitation project to improve the aging and deteriorating gas turbines at the Guddu Thermal Power Station will restore 33 to 55 Megawatts [33 to 55 million watts] of the power station's lost capacity and produce an additional 237 to 372 Gigawatthours (or million kilowatt hours) per year for the national grid, saving about $2.3 million in fuel per year.
Installing higher performance insulation windings and supplying spare parts at the Tarbela Dam Hydroelectrice Power Station in North West Frontier Province will increase the Station's capacity to 80 megawatts – adding 192 million kilowatt hours of power.
The U.S. will also work closely with four of the nine public electricity distribution companies over the next three years, aiming to lower levels of electricity loss. Every one percent of system-wide loss reduction represents $97 million in savings to the Pakistani consumer and additional power for economic development.
The U.S. is committed to working with Pakistan in an array of areas to help meet the energy needs of the Pakistani people.
