Electricity | How States Make It

Jim R's avatarHow I See It

How is electricity generated where you live? That question was addressed in a New York Times story by Nadja Popovich on 24 Dec 2018. Electricity is made from several energy sources including coal, natural gas, petroleum, nuclear, water flow, wind, solar, and biomass. The mixture of sources for each state is quite different and depends on the availability and cost of resources for that state.

The article looked at the range of time from 2001 to 2017. The mixture of energy sources has varied over time for each state and for the United States as a whole. Here we see the sources charted for the United States. Note the increase trend of natural gas and the decrease of coal. Nuclear and hydroelectric have remained constant. Wind grew to 6%. Solar in yellow is barely visible in the lower right. Click image for detail.

New York Times | Nadja Popovich…

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Examining Pakistan’s Power Sector on the Ground — Johns Hopkins SAIS Snapshot

Over the winter break, students in the Energy, Resources and Environment and South Asia Studies programs ventured to Pakistan to conduct research on the country’s power sector. Led by Professors Joshua White and Johannes Urpelainen, the student group met with a myriad of organizations in the public, private, nonprofit, NGO, and multilateral sectors. During the […]

via Examining Pakistan’s Power Sector on the Ground — Johns Hopkins SAIS Snapshot

Electricity Generation Mix of Pakistan (2018)

Central Power Purchasing Agency Guarantee Limited (CPPA) has issued energy procurement report for the month of December 2018 on 11th of January, 2019. This completes the series of energy procurement reports for the year 2018.
These energy procurement reports enlist the energy generated, fuel charges, and variable operation and maintenance costs of operating power plants in Pakistan (except K-Electric System). From this data, total energy charges for each power generating station is computed.
Total electricity generated from all the sources during the year 2018 is 124.03 Tera-Watt hour (TWh), up from 114.09 TWh that was produced during the year 2017. Analysis of energy procurement reports for 2018 and that of 2017 reveals that share of electricity generated from Coal and Re-Gasified Liquefied Natural Gas (RLNG) plants increased significantly in 2018, thanks to the commissioning of two coal fired power plants of 1,320 MW each, one at Sahiwal and other at Port Qasim, and addition of three RLNG plants with a combined capacity of approximately 3,600 MW.
Electricity generation from coal increases from 4.81 TWh (4.21%) in 2017 to 15.86 TWh (12.78%) in 2018. Overall generation from RLNG plants remained 27.77 TWh (22.39%) in 2018, which is significantly higher than RLNG based generation in 2017 (11.01 TWh or 9.65%). Generation from hydro power sources in Pakistan during 2018 and 2017 remained approximately same (30.20 TWh in 2017 and 29.11 TWh in 2018).
Another thing worth mentioning is that 14.32 TWh (11.54%) electricity is generated from expensive furnace oil during 2018. Share of oil generated electricity during 2017 was 26.49% (30.22 TWh). Electricity generated from Nuclear power plants during 2018 remained 7.27% and that from wind remained 2.28%.
Per unit energy cost during the year 2018 remained Rs. 5.49/kWh, which was around Rs. 4.81/kWh for the year 2017.
Share of other sources in electricity generation mix for the year 2018 is shown in the following video.

For comparison, the share of different sources in electricity generation for the year 2017 is available in the following video.

Electricity Generated in Pakistan (during December 2018)

Central Power Purchasing Agency Guarantee Limited (CPPA) has issued energy procurement report for the month of December 2018 on 11th of January, 2019. This report enlists the energy generated, fuel charges, and variable operation and maintenance costs of operating power plants in Pakistan (except K-Electric System). From this data, total energy charges for each power generating station is computed.

Total electricity generated from all the sources during December 2018 is 7,719 Giga-Watt hour (GWh), up from 7,546 GWh that was produced during November 2018. Analysis of energy procurement report for the month of November 2018 and that of December 2018 reveals that share of electricity generated from hydro power plants significantly decreased from 34% in November 2018 to 17% in December 2018. Overall generation from hydro power plants remained 1,334 GWh, which is significantly low because of low-flow season (winter, dry season). Generation from hydro sources in Pakistan during summer or high-flow season normally range from 3,500 GWh to 4,500 GWh.

Another thing worth mentioning is that 931 GWh (12%) electricity is generated from expensive furnace oil during December 2018. Share of oil generated electricity during November 2018 was only 0.08%. Electricity generated from Coal fired plants also increases from 1,044 GWh (14%) in November 2018 to 1,563 GWh (20%) in December 2018. This increase in electricity generated from expensive oil, and low generation from cheap hydro power plants increases the per unit energy cost, which is around Rs. 5.80/kWh for December 2018 as compared with Rs. 3.94/kWh in November 2018.

Share of other sources in electricity generation mix for December 2018 is shown in the following video.

For comparison, the share of different sources in electricity generation for the month of November 2018 is available in the following video.

Electricity Generated in Pakistan (during November 2018)

Central Power Purchasing Agency Guarantee Limited (CPPA) has issued energy procurement report for the month of November 2018 on 14th of December, 2018. This report enlists the energy generated, fuel charges, and variable operation and maintenance costs of operating power plants in Pakistan (except K-Electric System). From this data, total energy charges for each power generating station is computed.

Total electricity generated from all the sources during November 2018 is 7,546 Giga-Watt hour (GWh), down from 9,574 GWh that was produced during October 2018. Analysis of energy procurement report for the month of October 2018 and that of November 2018 reveals that share of electricity generated from hydro power plants increased from 25% in October 2018 to 34% in November 2018. Overall generation from hydro power plants remained 2,564 GWh, which is relatively low because of low-flow season (winter, dry season). Generation from hydro sources in Pakistan during summer or high-flow season normally range from 3,500 GWh to 4,500 GWh.

Another thing worth mentioning is that electricity generated from expensive furnace oil during November 2018 is very small i.e. 0.08%, decreasing from around 8% during October 2018. Electricity generated from RLNG plants also decreases from 2,195 GWh (23%) in October 2018 to 1,300 GWh (17%) in November 2018. This reduction in the expensive oil and RLNG generated electricity, and no generation from diesel fuel reduces per unit energy cost, which is around Rs. 3.94/kWh for November 2018 as compared with Rs. 5.44/kWh in October 2018.

Share of other sources in electricity generation mix for November 2018 is shown in the following video.

For comparison, the share of different sources in electricity generation for the month of October 2018 is available in the following video.

Electricity Generated in Pakistan (during October 2018)

Central Power Purchasing Agency Guarantee Limited (CPPA) has issued energy procurement report for the month of October 2018. This report enlists the energy generated, fuel charges, and variable operation and maintenance costs of operating power plants in Pakistan (except K-Electric System). From this data, total energy charges for each power generating station is computed.

Total electricity generated from all the sources during October 2018 is 9,574 Giga-Watt hour (GWh), down from 12,552 GWh that was produced during September 2018. Analysis of energy procurement report for the month of September 2018 and that of October 2018 reveals that share of electricity generated from hydro power plants reduced from 34% in September 2018 to 25% in October 2018. This reduction in generation is expected because of low-flow season (winter, dry season).

Another thing worth mentioning is that no electricity is generated from expensive diesel fuel during October 2018. Electricity generated from nuclear power plants also increases from 5.43% in September 2018 to 9.27% in October 2018. This increase in the nuclear generated electricity and no generation from expensive diesel fuel partially offset the impact of reduced generation from cheap hydro power sources in per unit energy cost, which is around Rs. 5.44/kWh for October 2018 as compared with Rs. 5.05/kWh in September 2018.

Share of other sources in electricity generation mix for October 2018 is shown in the following video.

 

For comparison, the share of different sources in electricity generation for the month of September 2018 is available in the following video.