IESCO has lowest line losses, says chairman

Islamabad Electric Supply Company (IESCO) Chairman Mohsin Khalid said on Thursday that the IESCO has emerged as the most efficient company of PEPCO, with line losses of almost 8 percent out of overall line losses of 26 percent of PEPCO.
Addressing a seminar at the National Press Club, the IESCO chairman said that administrative support was needed to nab those involved in power theft. He said ‘kunda culture’ in many areas of the country was testimony to the lack of political will on the part of government to control power theft.
The electricity tariff, he added, would decline by 15 percent if power theft was effectively controlled and all electricity dues were recovered. He said that the electricity tariff was high owing to monetary escalation in power purchases on the part of the Control Power Purchasing Authority.
Pakistan Muslim League – Quaid (PML-Q) Senator Haroon Akhtar, a member of the Standing Committee on Petroleum and Natural Resources, said that Pakistan, despite being laden with richly diversified resources was facing extreme energy crisis. The energy situation in the country was worsening with each passing day due to the lack of proper planning by the government departments, he added.
Haroon said that according to the survey conducted by OPEC countries, the petroleum resources of the world, if continued to be utilised at the current rate, would deplete in next 70 years. Therefore, countries around the world were looking for renewable and alternative energy resources to meet the challenge of depleting energy resources.
He called upon the government to undertake measures to get rid of the energy crisis by adopting alternate energy resources and also initiating talks with the US for getting civilian nuclear energy.
“There is a dire need to utilise our indigenous reserves of coal as China and United States are generating 80 percent and 50 percent electricity by coal, respectively,” Haroon said.
Haroon said that the line losses, circular debts, lack of maintenance and shortage of energy resources were major causes of energy crisis. He said further that line losses in Pakistan were two-fold, compared to the international standard, which was adding to the power shortfall. He said that the line losses of SNGPL had augmented from almost 6 percent to 13 percent in four years, which was of serious concern.
He said that Ethanol was converted to petrol in the rest of the world to meet energy requirements, however, it was not converted to petrol in Pakistan. Senator Haroon said that the lack of sincere, committed and dedicated leadership was the root cause of all problems and crises faced by the country.
Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) Member National Assembly (MNA) Engineer Khurram Dastgir said that the principal reason for the decline of investment to GDP ratio from 22 percent to 13.4 percent was the incompetence of the incumbent government to tackle the energy crisis. He said that there were no job opportunities in the country owing to the energy crisis.
He said that the electricity theft had risen from 11 percent to 13 percent and gas theft from 21 percent to 29 percent. According to the Planning Commission, the national exchequer was suffering a loss of Rs 300 billion on account of electricity theft, the MNA added.
He urged that the political appointments in the important organisation such as Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority and the Oil and Gas Development Company Limited must be stopped, enhancing the efficiency of the both organisations for resolving the energy crisis. Khurram said that the circular debt was the biggest problem of the country and obstructing the economic growth.
CNG Association Chairman Gayyas Paracha demanded the government to rationalise the tariff structure of gas sector. He said that the government was, on preferential basis, awarding the industrial sector that was consuming gas at 42 percent, the gas on the tariff of 592 mmbtu, whereas the government was providing the non industrial consumers, including CNG stations and households that were consuming only 8 percent of the gas, the gas on the tariff of 789 mmbtu. He said that if gauged on the demand and supply parameters to set the criterion for price adjustments, these price mechanisms enforced by the government were based on sheer injustice and discrimination. He said that the government should put in effect the project of Mother Daughter System to save the gas that was wasted in the form of flares gas at the gas well in Islamabad. The CNG stations were ready to undertake the project if permitted, he added.