As the heat wave gripped the country with maximum temperatures rising to 47 degrees Celsius in Larkana on Monday, increased load shedding from 12 to 14 hours in urban areas and from 18 to 20 hours in rural areas has not only added to miseries of the people but has also affected businesses and industries across the country with no respite in sight as the power shortfall hit 6,500MW against a demand of 16,000MW.
As the alarm bells went off, two important meetings were held at the Water and Power Ministry and Petroleum Ministry to review the situation on Monday. Adviser to Prime Minister on Petroleum Dr Asim Hussain met Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani to brief him on progress in revamping the oil and gas public sector companies. Dr Asim said there were abundant hydrocarbon and coal resources in the country and measures should be taken to intensify oil and gas exploration activities.
He recommended investor-friendly policies to attract foreign investment. Meanwhile, at a specially convened meeting of the chief executives of Pakistan Electric Power Company (PEPCO) and its subsidiary distribution companies (DISCOs), Water and Power Minister Syed Naveed Qamar ordered stringent steps to recover over Rs 80 billion in dues from defaulting consumers from the last three years, and significantly reduce their transmission and distribution losses aggregating 24 percent at the moment.
An official source said the meeting took a detailed briefing on the performance, recovery, outstanding dues and line losses of DISCOs. PEPCO officials blamed Pakistan State Oil (PSO) and gas utility companies for low fuel supplies that were worsening the crisis, even though 2,000MW of power had been added to the system in the last two years. PSO was said to have diverted all its furnace oil to Karachi Electricity Supply Company to cover its gas shortfall, a move that had resulted in massive shortfall of furnace oil for other IPPs. The minister was told that the Kot Addu Power Company (KAPCO), which had the potentioal to produce 1300MW of power, was producing only 100MW, and there was a 300MW shortfall in the Hub Power Company (HUBCO)’s output of 1200MW.
Overall fuel shortages were blocking the addition of 3100MW to the national grid, the minister was told, but he found the explanations insufficient and told PEPCO to improve its cash flow by going after defaulters. He said without funds for the payment of furnace oil purchases the situation was not likely to improve, the source said, adding that the minister ordered every DISCO chief executive to set targets for recovery and reduction in line losses.
The meeting was told that because of record low temperatures in northern parts of the country, water inflows to reservoirs had decreased, which had caused hydel output to decline to 1500MW against a generation capacity of 6500MW. With temperatures rising to over 42 degrees Celsius in Lahore, and 37 degrees Celsius in Karachi, power shortage was forecasted to increase significantly as air conditioners were expected to add 5,500MW of load to the system.
