The Iranian project to supply electricity to Pakistan is complete and ready for launch.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will inaugurate the 100-megawatt transmission line from Pollan in southeast Iran and 51 km from Pakistan’s border to Gwadar next week, ISNA reported
The National Transmission and Dispatch Company of Pakistan has completed the project at a cost of $10 million and the 29-km-long power transmission line has already passed all the tests successfully.
Electricity will be supplied to both the domestic and the industrial sectors of Gwadar, the coastal district in Makran division.
The governments of Iran and Pakistan had signed the agreement for this project last June.
Initially, to meet the demand of the border areas of Pakistan’s Balochistan Province, an agreement was inked between the two neighboring countries in 2002, for the import of 34 MW of electricity. The figures gradually increased to 73 MW and finally reached 100 MW. With the launch of the new project, the total electricity import from Iran will reach 200 MW.
The import of additional power from Iran will be beneficial for the people of Gwadar and Makran regions. It will help reduce load-shedding and with the sustainable power supply in the region, key business players and investors will be able to develop their businesses.
IP Pipeline Project
Pakistan also needs natural gas from Iran to feed its power plants. Its Petroleum Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan said last month that Islamabad was willing to complete the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline.
The long-delayed IP Pipeline Project - also called Peace Pipeline - is a 1,957-kilometer pipeline that will supply gas from Iran’s South Pars Gas Field to Pakistan's two major cities: Karachi and Multan.
Iran has fulfilled its commitment and long ago built its share of the pipeline inside its territory (1,172 km from Asalouyeh to the joint border) and is waiting for Islamabad to complete the remaining 785 km on its territory.
In late January, Iran urged Pakistan to build a portion of the pipeline on its territory till February-March 2024, which was agreed by the sides, or pay the fine of $18 billion.
The Pakistani government announced last October that Islamabad was sincerely considering different solutions to resume work on the IP project to meet the country’s energy needs on a sustainable basis while following internal laws.
In recent months, Iran and Pakistan have taken several steps to strengthen energy cooperation. Boosting energy ties was a main topic of talks between Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi during a meeting on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s Summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, last September.
According to Pakistani news outlets, from chronic load shedding to electricity theft, heavy transmission and distribution losses to massive non-payment of dues, the country's power sector is prone to every problem imaginable, despite attempts by various governments over the years to fix the system.
Over 140 million Pakistanis (of the total 197 million population) either have no access to the power grid or have to make do with several hours of load shedding every day.
The average power shortfall is 4,000 megawatts while gas deficit is said to be 57 million cubic meters per day.
