ISLAMABAD:
The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz government is facing the heat, not from the scorching summer that accentuates the chronic power crisis, but from the opposition parties planning to exploit its predicament.
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), along with other likeminded parties, is planning to spearhead a protest movement on May 11. Prolonged power outages are one of the issues the opposition parties plan to capitalise on. The government is aggressively exploring every possible option to rein in the debilitating power crisis in an attempt to pacify angry citizens and discourage them from joining the protest.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday chaired a meeting where demand and supply of electricity were discussed.
“The prime minister was briefed about the load management plan for the months of May, June and July, and he directed that the load-shedding level be reduced to six hours in urban and seven hours in rural areas in the next few days. He said the existing level of load-shedding is unacceptable,” according to a statement issued by his office.
In what appears to be a stopgap arrangement, the premier directed the finance ministry to release Rs20 billion to bridge the gap between demand and supply of electricity.
“The ministry of finance released Rs20 billion a couple of days back. Another 20 billion rupees will be released shortly,” said the ministry’s spokesperson Rana Assad Amin. Though the finance secretary is out of the country, the acting secretary can do the job and it is likely that the next Rs20 billion tranche will be released today (Thursday).
Amin said that all the financial needs of the power sector will be met to minimise the shortfall. He added that future financial assessment will be made at a joint meeting of the Ministry of Water and Power and the Ministry of Finance which is likely to take place in the next few days.
The prime minister directed the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources and Ministry of Water and Power to ensure that the fuel shortage issue is resolved in the next few days, the statement added.
An additional 1,000 megawatts of electricity (MW) may be added to the national grid on May 11 – the day when the PTI is scheduled to launch its protest movement.
More power to citizens
“The prime minister was briefed that an additional 1,000MW will be added from hydel sources on May 11. By the end of this month 3,500MW more will be added from hydel sources,” said the statement issued after Wednesday’s meeting.
Sources told The Express Tribune that hydel generation would be increased with the release of water from Mangal and Tarbela dams to the provinces. Power generation was affected as the provinces were not taking water, they added.
“The government had taken a commitment from the IRSA [Indus River System Authority] to release water to the provinces so that power generation could be increased,” sources said. They added that the addition of 3,500MW would be made in the next 20 to 30 days.
At present, the national grid is producing 11,000MW and officials claim that there is a demand of 145,000MW. However, experts say there is a shortfall of 6,000MW which means the country needs 17,000MW.
As several options were explored to bridge this demand-supply gap, the premier tasked Minister for Water and Power Khawaja Asif with convincing the provinces on an energy conservation plan which envisages closure of markets at 8pm.
Shifting priority
According to the statement, the prime minister directed shifting of gas supply from the fertiliser industry to the power sector as well as reducing gas supply to the CNG sector partially so that 592MW can be generated.
Another 630MW would also be added through additional supply of fuel to Muzaffargarh and Jamshoro power plants. The premier also gave orders for the reactivation of dormant power stations, the statement added. He said that fuel should be supplied to the power houses through railway to avoid leakages, pilferage and corruption.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 8th, 2014.
No comments:
Post a Comment