Pakistan’s installed capacity may rise by over 40% to 57 GW in 2030

Pakistan will have to increase its power generation capacity to 57 GW by 2030, according to the Indicative Generation Capacity Expansion Plan (IGCEP) 2020, prepared by the National Transmission and Dispatch Company. Consequently, the country will have to invest around US$32bn by 2030 to develop new power projects. The IGCEP estimates power demand at 34.4 GW by 2030 (excluding the demand from K-Electric), requiring a power generation capacity of 53.3 GW, including existing power capacity, committed power plants and optimisation of candidates power plants. The renewable capacity could reach 6.5 GW, of which 3.8 GW would come from wind, over 1.9 GW from solar and nearly 750 MW from bagasse. In the high-case estimate, power demand could reach 57.2 GW by 2030, to be covered with 28 GW of existing capacity (6.5 GW should be decommissioned by 2030), 22 GW of committed power plants and nearly 7 GW of candidate projects.

At the end of 2020, Pakistan’s installed capacity stood at 39 GW, with 36% of gas, 25% of hydropower and 18% of oil.