Speakers at an energy awareness conference said that Pakistan has huge reserves of coal and it provides the best solution for its energy crises.

Mr Ammar Ali Talaat manager strategic planning and business development KESC said coal is keeping pace with consumer electric demand and according to a recent study coal will still account for about 45 to 50% of world’s power generation in 2025.

KESC has signed MoU with a Chinese company to convert two of their existing boilers of Bin Qasim Thermal Power Station from furnace oil to coal. The conversion aims to reduce KESC’s reliance on furnace oil and result in cost savings for the company and the consumers in the form of tariff reduction.

The KESC has partnered with a British company who will do the mining while KESC will put up a power plant of 300MW, which will be enhanced to 1200MW in the future. The speakers pointed out in Pakistan the potential 3000MW power plants run on furnace oil and if measures are taken to convert these power plants to coal, the country will be in a position to save approximately one billion dollars.

(Sourced from www.dailytimes.com.pk)