Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani on Monday said load shedding could not be completely done away with, however, power outages would be conducted on an equal basis across the four provinces and the government would make all out efforts to curtail power theft and overcome load shedding.
He was addressing a press conference after chairing the Energy Conference 2012, which was attended by all four chief ministers, Azad Jammu and Kashmir PM and federal ministers for power and finance.
Gilani said a number of proposals like two days holiday a week for government offices, closure of markets at 8pm except on Saturdays, cutting electricity supply to billboards and usage of energy savers instead of regular bulbs would be put in place to save energy.
He said all stakeholders of the conference agreed on various proposals and it was expected that these measures would help curtail load shedding in the country. The prime minister said the provincial heads would discuss these proposals with their parties and then decide on it. He said 700MW would be saved through cutting electricity to sign boards and billboards.
To a question on the construction of Kalabagh Dam, the PM said building the dam was impossible without consensus. “We have consensus on Diamer Bhasha Dam and it has already been started,” the PM said, adding that the schedule of government offices would also be determined in accordance with winter and summer seasons.
Gilani said a special law would be constituted against energy theft. He said the government was considering diverting gas to power producers and also giving additional gas to KAPCO so that maximum power could be produced and load shedding could be reduced.
“We do not want to take any step that creates problems for the coming government,” he said, adding that in the last four years, the government added 3,400MW to the national grid.
He said the government was serious in controlling energy theft and it drafted the Gas Theft Act and now would further legislate to control electricity theft more efficiently.
He said the government also gave leverage to the poor.
“Lifeline consumers used to pay bills on 50 units, but we relaxed them by increasing the threshold to 100 units,” he added. He thanked the Punjab chief minister for clearing the dues owed by his province and hoped that other provinces would follow suit. Earlier, speaking at Energy Conference 2012, Prime Minister Gilani emphasized upon the provinces to play their role in efforts for generating power to overcome energy crisis facing the country.
He elaborated that government strategy involves further exploitation of hydropower to reduce cost of input, developing coal reserves for power generation and to convert the plants from oil to coal in the short-term, as the Thar alone had 175 billion tonnes of coal and was suitable for power generation of around 100,000MW annually.
“We remain a victim of shifts in oil market until we have a national consensus on long-term policy for secure, affordable energy future and then execute it. This challenge is huge and we all need to work in unison before the energy crisis overwhelms us completely.”
Gilani said the present government had worked on changing the energy mix and shifting towards hydel and coal generation.
“For this, we have accelerated work on Neelum-Jhelum power project; finalized financing for a more turbines in Tarbela with the assistance of World Bank; starting work on Diamer-Bhasha Dam; design is underway for Dasu Dam; rehabilitation of Jabban hydropower Malakand; Jaggran-II with the assistance of France; Gomal Zam and Satpara Dam with the US assistance and Patrind Hydropower (AJK) in the private sector by a Korean Company,” he said.
The prime minister said the government was also building Chashma-III and IV, and 747MW Guddu combined cycle with the assistance of China; improvement of transmission and distribution system as well as building new grid stations with major assistance of Asian Development Bank.
SHAHBAZ HAPPY: Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif told reporters after the meeting that he was “happy after the conference, as the federal government has accepted the stance of Punjab for carrying out equal load shedding in the entire country”.
“All stakeholders of the conference have agreed that there will be no discrimination in load shedding in the future,” the Punjab CM said, adding that when there was a crisis, everyone should share the burden equally.
Speaking during the conference earlier, Shahbaz said power shortage had destroyed national economy and adversely affected factories, banks, shops, offices and business centres.
He said Punjab had fulfilled its responsibilities in this regard, but the issue of circular debt had still not been resolved and this debt had now reached a staggering figure of more than Rs 400 billion.
He said supply of gas to power sector should be increased and the plants showing better performance should be given preference in fuel supply.
He proposed that DISCOs be privatized for improving their efficiency and observed that it would also eliminate corruption.
The CM said the payment ratio of Punjab was much better than any other area of the country, which could be judged from the fact that FESCO had only 11 percent line losses, while the recovery rate was 99.8 percent.
He said the people of Punjab were paying their dues, but they were part of a system which favoured thieves and defaulters and penalized the honest.
Shahbaz said 2,000 megawatt energy could be produced from the baggass of 75 sugar mills, but no attention has been paid to this sector during the last four years.