renewable

1. GEOGRAPHY PROJECT
THERMAL ELECTRICTY
By: Hamna Javed , Ameema Asad, Nawal Urooj and Bisma
Rehman

2. Function of the thermal power plant
• Much of the world’s electricity is generated
thermally using non-renewable fuels. Coal
is the world's most abundant fossil fuel and
the fuel most often used to generate
thermal electricity.
• Coal-fired units produce electricity by
burning coal in a boiler to heat water to
produce steam.

3. • The steam, at tremendous pressure, flows
into a turbine, which spins a generator to
produce electricity. The steam is cooled,
condensed back into water, and returned
to the boiler to start the process over.

6. Power in Pakistan, Market Outlook to 2020,
2011 Update - Capacity, Generation,
Regulations, Power Plants, Companies
• DUBLIN -- Research and Markets has announced the
addition of GlobalData's new report "Thermal Power
in Pakistan, Market Outlook to 2020, 2011 Update -
Capacity, Generation, Regulations, Power Plants,
Companies" to their offering.This report gives a view
of the country's thermal energy market and provides
forecasts to 2020.

7. • This report includes information on thermal (coal,
oil and gas) installed capacity and generation. It
provides information on key trends, profiles of major
industry participants, information on major power
plants and analysis of important deals. This along
with detailed information on the regulatory
framework and key policies governing the industry,
provides a comprehensive understanding of the
market for thermal power in the country. This report
is built using data and information sourced from
proprietary databases, primary and secondary
research and in-house analysis by Global Data's
team of industry experts.
• Source: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_20
110629/ai_n57753676/

8. State-run thermal power plants
Pakistan Energy Outlook seeks privatisation of
plants
By Ijaz Kakakhel
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Energy Outlook launched on Tuesday
forwarded multiple recommendations including privatization of state-
owned thermal power plants based on oil, gas and coal to the
government.
The outlook was launched on last day of the energy conference, which
began from Sunday. According to the report, Pakistan’s energy sector is
in a state of crisis and the over the past few years has negatively
impacted the economic development of the country. Primary energy
consumption in the country has grown by almost 80 percent over the past
15 years, from 34 million tones oil equivalent (TOE) in 1994-95 to 61
million TOE in 2009-10 and has supported the average gross domestic
product (GDP) growth rate in the country of about 4.5 percent per annum.

9. However, since 2006-07 energy supply has been unable to
meet the country’s requirement leading to shortages. The
report revealed that country has power generation capacity of
20,000 megawatts (MW), in which about 13,000 MW is effective.
It needs to be at least double in the next 15 years.
The state-owned thermal power plants having generation
capacity of 5,000 MW have low conversion efficiencies and are
expensive to maintain and operate. After privatization of these
thermal power plants, they will operate in a competitive market
with no requirement of government support. The outlook also
revealed that the hydel and nuclear power generation will
remain a state responsibility, and their tariff will be adjusted to
provide funds for building new capacity.
The report further revealed that the government-controlled
power sector has become heavily politicized, and is unable to
improve its performance, therefore, it should be privatized. It
also recommended the government to allow all power
distribution and marketing companies (DISCOs) to operate in a
competitive power market with open access for third-party
power supplies.

10. . The report also suggested that high-voltage power
transmission to continue being a government responsibility via
the state-controlled National Transmission and Dispatch
Company (NTDC), with open-access for all power suppliers.
The Energy Outlook asked the government that the single
national power tariff be disbanded and de-centralized to the
multiple DISCOs to reflect the true power consists in different
parts of the country. The power tariff for each distribution
company should be de-regulated, with no pricing slabs and no
government subsidy. It revealed that indigenous natural gas is
the largest source of energy supply in the country contributing
27.7 million TOE (45.4 percent) in 2009-10, followed by oil
products, mainly imports, at 21.3 million TOE (34.9 percent),
hydel power at 7.5 million TOE (12.3 percent), coal, mainly
imports at 3.7 million TOE (6.1 percent) and nuclear power at
0.8 million TOE (1.3 percent).

11. It shows that consumption of indigenous natural gas has grown
rapidly in all sectors of the economy (residential, commercial,
industrial, transport and power) over the past 15 years, driven by
growing availability of gas and a low, government-controlled gas
price as compared with alternate fuel prices. As a result,
Pakistan has developed a vast natural gas transmission and
distribution network across the country The report further shows
that it is unlikely that Pakistan will be able to substantially
develop its other indigenous energy sources of hydel power and
coal in next 15 years under current policies, and the energy
import requirements of the country may grow from the present
30 percent to over 75 percent of the energy mix by 2025-26
costing over $50 billion per annum.. . The report says that the
government-run power sector, one of the lowest consumers of
primary energy, is confronting growing problems due to an
unrealistic power tariff, high inefficiencies, low payment
recovery and the inability of the government to manage its
subsidies’ mechanism. This has led to a serious ‘circular debt’
issue, which is becoming a barrier for future energy sector
investments.

12. The report recommended that natural gas pricing be made
compatible with pricing of replacement fuels in different
sectors (LPG, fuel oil, LNG/pipeline imports) via an enhanced
gas surcharge. It reveals the gas prices in Pakistan are very
low. Therefore, pricing for new natural gas supplies, both
domestic and imports be de-regulated and pricing slabs be
abolished with a single natural gas price for all volumes. The
Energy Outlook further showed Pakistan’s indigenous natural
gas reserves are declining and a low gas price has become a
significant disincentive in attractive new gas supplies and for
efficiency and conservation creating licensing and quota
culture, either through increased domestic exploration
activities or via imports of LNG or regional gas pipeline
imports. If current gas policies persist, Pakistan’s natural gas
supply is expected to decline from 4 billion cubic feet per day
(bcfd) in 2010-11 to less than 1 bcfd by 2025-26. This will lead to
a growing gas/energy shortfall reaching 8 bcfd (over 50 million
TOE) by 2025-26 and will depress Pakistan’s average GDP
growth rate over the next 15 years.

14. Locations of thermal power
plants in Pakistan

15. Existing Locations
• The main centre for the production of
thermal power in Sindh is Karachi. Other
important thermal stations in Sindh are
located at Kotri, Hyderabad, Sukkur and
Guddu.
• Large thermal plants in Punjab have been
installed art Rawalpindi, Lahore, Faislabad,
Multan and Kot Addu.
• In Balochistan, thermal power plants are at
Quetta, Pasni and Hub.

16. Future Locations
• There is no plan of building a conventional thermal
power plant in Pakistan, as the thermal fuel is very
expensive which results in unbearable production
cost of electricity.
• One non-conventional thermal power plant is being
built in Thar, “coal gasification power plant” with the
capacity of 100 mega watt. This power plant is going
to be operational from 2013.
• This power plant is being built in thar because there is
a high amount of coal present over there which will be
used to produce a gas which will be then burned to
produce electricity .This power plant is experimental
so if it is going to be successful then more such
power plants with more capacity will be built.
• Renowned nuclear scientist Dr. Samar Mubarakmand
said. “A project has almost been finalized to produce
electricity by utilizing Thar coal reserves, which are
one of the five largest coal reserves in the world,”

17. Factors for the location for a thermal power
plant
• As the name implies the power plant is meant for
generating power which obviously means that it will
consume huge quantities of fuel. The exact quantity
would depend on the size of the plant and its capacity
but it is a general fact that ample quantities of fuel
must be available either in the vicinity or it should be
reasonably economical to transport the fuel till the
power plant
• Since most thermal power plants use coal (they can
use other fuels as well) it must be ensured that
sufficient coal is available round the clock. Just to
give you a rough idea a power plant with 1000 MW
capacity approximately would require more than ten
thousand tons of coal per day hence the necessity for
continuous supply and storage capability of coal in
the power station.

18. • Ash if the main byproduct of combustion and since
the amount of coal used is huge, you can intuitively
imagine the amount of ash generated and it is
certainly in the region of thousand tons per day.
Ash is much more difficult to handle as compared to
coal since it comes out hot from the boiler and is
very corrosive in nature. Disposing of such huge
quantities of ash requires a large amount of empty
space where it can be safely dumped.
• There must be ample space for the storage of coal,
disposal of ash, building of the power plant,
residential colony of workers, markets and so forth.
An approximate analysis suggests that for every
MW of power generated there must be at least 3
acres of land available for the purpose

19. • Hence the power plant site needs to have good
amount of land and this land should have good
bearing capacity in order to survive the static and
dynamic loads during the operation of the plant.
• As we saw in the previous article of this series,
large amount of water is required for cooling
purposes in the power plant hence it is better if
such a source is available nearby in the form of
rivers etc.
• Apart from these major requirements there are also
other requirements which are equally important
such as the availability of skilled people to work for
the plant and good transport facilities in the vicinity.
• Hence we see that setting up a thermal power
plant requires a lots of factors to be considered
simultaneously.

20. Advantages of coal based thermal
power plant
• Can respond to rapidly changing loads without
difficulty.
• A portion of the steam generated can be used as a
process steam in different industries
• Steam engines and turbines can work under 25 % of
overload continuously
• Fuel is cheaper
• Cheaper in production cost in comparison with that
of diesel power stations.

21. Disadvantages of coal based
thermal power plant
• Maintenance and operating cost are high
• Long time required for erection and putting into
action
• Large quantity of water required
• Difficulty in coal handling
• Unavailability of good quality of coal
• Maximum of heat energy lost
• Problem of ash removing