Electricity Crisis and the Significance of Indigenous Coal for Electric Power Generation
Abdur Rashid, Kamran Yousaf, Sifat Shah, Neelofar Shaukat
Electronic Devices, Vol. 4, No. 1, 2015.
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Abstract:
A few Asian countries such as Indonesia, China and Pakistan are coal-rich. It is estimated that the total coal reserves of these countries are over several billion tons, which makes them the richest nations of the world in respect of coal
reserves. Coal reserves are present in all four provinces of these countries. The largest reservoir accounting to 175.5 billion tons of coal is in Thar area of Sindh province of Pakistan. Some regions despite having the enormous coal reserves, are facing acute shortage of Electricity. The Pakistanâ€™s electricity demand is rising at the rate of 11% annually, while incremental rate of production is fairly flat. Country heavily depends upon the import of oil for thermal power generation. Total Power
Generation Capacity of Pakistan is approximately 19,855 MW among which 67.2% is generated from thermal sources (oil and gas), 29.4% from hydel and 3.3% from nuclear while coal accounts only for 0.1% which is far less as compared to the
worldâ€™s average of 40%. Due to increased cost of petroleum products, slow development of hydel and nuclear power generation and negligible development of Indigenous-Coal reservoir, country is facing severe energy crisis. The Coal reserves can become a main source for production of cheap electricity for the country and are the only reliable source to minimize the gap between consumption and generation of electricity. It is anticipated that, if properly utilized, these countriesâ€™ Coal energy resources may generate at least 100,000 MW of electricity for the next few years. This paper provides the overview of
electricity shortage, problems associated with energy-mix used for power generation and root causes of electricity shortage. It also highlights the importance, characteristics, and power generation capability of the Coal reservoir of these countries.