Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) has demanded of the government to end 175MMCFD gas supply to 100 captive power units installed by various industries and shift this supply to KESC to end load-shedding in the city. KESC officials are of the opinion that additional supply of 175 MMCFD gas would not only end power crisis in the city, but also benefit about two million people in the metropolis.
End to load-shedding
There will be an end to load-shedding in Karachi if the said volume of gas was added into the supply line. Currently, the industrial units of Karachi receive 300 MMCFD of natural gas, more than half of which (about 170 to 175 MMCFD) is used for power generation.
As a result, SSGC continued to deprive KESC of its genuine official quota of 276 MMCFD, supplying only around 180 MMCFD at present.
Ghufran A. Khan, Chief Marketing Communication Officer of KESC, raised these issues while talking to Profit on Wednesday. “Shortage of gas in the SSGC’s system was not an issue but there was something fundamentally wrong with the gas allocation policy,” he said, adding that gas consumed at captive plants of some industries could be shifted to KESC’s gas based plants to generate additional electricity. But, unfortunately, he claimed, the government was meeting the need of a handful of industrial units and CNG stations at the cost of the genuine daily electricity requirement of 20 million people of Karachi. Life in the commercial metropolis has been adversely affected by prolonged load-shedding, which stems from gas supply shortfall at KESC’s generation plants.
As per agreement
Under the agreement signed between government and Abraaj Capital, the management of the company, the government had guaranteed regular supply of almost 130 MMCFD gas to the new plant of KESC at Bin Qasim, in addition to 276 MMCFD for KESC’s existing plants, he said. But the two new units of the 560-MW Combined Cycle Power Plant of the company, having power generating capacity of almost 120 megawatts each, were waiting for the additional and required gas supply from SSGC. He said the plant would be able to supply the almost 560 MWs after completing the work on the other two units by next year.
The power supply situation in the city would improve during the winter season if the required fuel supply was maintained by the government side. He also pointed out that the receivable amount of the KESC towards different departments and other consumers has gone up to Rs82 billion. The Karachi Water Supply and Sanitation Board alone owes a huge amount of Rs15 billion to the KESC. Khan said the government had mandated the KESC to ensure electricity supply to government departments, including governor house, chief minister house and sensitive installations in the city, which do not pay their utility bills and owe tens of millions of rupees to the company.
No Pakistani investment
Ghufran Khan also dispelled the impression that any influential person of the PPP government had any stake in the KESC and said Abraaj Capital had not raised any investment from any person or company in Pakistan and India. As a policy measure, Abraaj Capital decided not to accept investment from any Pakistani company or individual for running the utility company, he explained.
He pointed out that by the first quarter of 2012, KESC would line up an additional 1000 MWs of electricity, not only ending the power crisis but also enabling supply of surplus electricity to the national grid system.
“We have informed the government that if adequate quantity of gas and fuel is supplied to the company, we will be able to generate surplus electricity by first quarter of 2012 that could be supplied to the national grid system,” he said. He said the KESC was making hectic efforts to reduce line losses, increase power generation, end load-shedding and to ensure a turnaround in the company. Ghufran also pointed out that more than 2,000 surplus employees of the company have been separated from KESC under the voluntary separation scheme, while steps are being taken to relieve another 4,500 surplus employees under similar schemes.