- Orders legal action against thieves of gas & electricity
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has ordered that electricity load-shedding should be kept to minimum duration as much as possible during summers so that consumers do not face any inconvenience.
He said this while chairing a high-level meeting at PM House Wednesday regarding load-shedding schedule planned for the next four months. He was briefed regarding the overall electricity and gas network & distribution system in the country, during which he directed that strict legal action should be taken against those involved in gas and electricity theft.
The PM further said that leakage from the system is unacceptable and strict measures should be taken in this regard. Sharif said that the government has made more strict legal measures available against electricity and gas theft.
During the briefing, the PM was apprised that smart meters at 11 KV grids have been installed. He directed that electricity dues should be recovered on priority and a report in this regard be presented in a week’s time. He further directed that action should be taken against heads of distribution companies that are not performing well.
The prime minister was apprised that Pakistan had a total gas network of 146,628 kilometres with 7,005,417 consumers. Out of the 2,715 mmcfd in the year 2012-13, 764 mmcfd is supplied to domestic consumers, 112 mmcfd to commercial, 320 mmcfd to power sector, 89 mmcfd to fertilizer, 463 mmcfd to industry / captive sector, 274 mmcfd to CNG and 375 mmcfd is unaccounted for. Further, 1,021 mmcfd is specified for dedicated power and fertilizer plants.
The PM was further apprised that the unaccounted for gas (UFG) is calculated as the difference between total volumes purchased and sold to consumers by gas utility companies during a financial year. Also, that 30-40 percent of the total UFG is from leakages, 30-40 percentage from theft, and 20-25 percent is due to metre errors. In the year 2012-13, Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) network had UFG of 210 mmcfd (12 percent) whereas Sui Southern Gas Company Limited (SSGC) had 115 mmcfd (10percent) of UFG in its network.
Nawaz Sharif was further apprised that various short term measures such as theft-control, pressure-profiling, leak rectification and replacement of defective meters have been taken to control UFG.
In addition, the PM was also informed of medium and long-term measures including segmentation of distribution network, pipeline rehabilitation, and improvement of measurement accuracy and cathodic protection of steel network are being adopted. It was informed that further measures have also been taken including installation of cyber door locks on meters of industrial and CNG consumers, bulk & CNG customers connected through dedicated metered lines for monitoring, installation of bulk meters in no-go areas to quantify gas theft by non-customers, bulk and CNG customers connected through dedicated metered lines for monitoring.
The meeting was attended by Minister for Finance Ishaq Dar, Minister for Information Pervez Rasheed, Minister for Petroleum Shahid Khaqan Abbassi, Minister for Water & Power Abid Sher Ali, the secretaries of water & power and petroleum departments, and senior government officers.