Dark days ahead: ‘Electricity woes to worsen in future’
Over Rs300 billion in circular debt would cripple the energy sector further and lead to a power shortfall of over 5,200 megawatts (MW) next year, National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) Chairman Khalid Saeed said on Tuesday.
“Record high furnace oil prices have plagued the private and public power producing companies, leading to an abnormal rise in power tariff for the consumers,” Saeed informed a parliamentary panel.
The authority has sent nine advisories to the government for improving efficiency of public sector companies, he said.
“Generation companies, distribution companies and Pakistan Electric Power Company (Pepco) have not been able to keep up due to a lack of funds,” he informed the Senate standing committee on cabinet secretariat and provincial coordination.
Our installed capacity is 21,000MW but we are producing only 11,000MW due to lack of resources, he informed the panel.
“If distribution companies do not pay their dues within two months, the situation will get worse,” he said.
Pakistan is among countries that produce a large chunk of their electricity through furnace oil, he said, adding that electricity produced through furnace oil costs at least Rs22 per unit. He said that Nepra has rendered several advisories to the water and power ministry, the finance ministry and Pepco for switching to other available alternatives including coal, liquified natural gas and water.
Losses, wastage
Private power generation companies in the country are facing a host of problems, the chairman said.
He indicated that the authority may cancel licences of some private power producers that have to pay billions of rupees but he did not disclose any names during the briefing.
Nepra officials also informed the panel that power distribution companies faced losses between 10 and 34 per cent during the last fiscal year.
Losses of distribution companies were as follows: Hyderabad 34%, Quetta and Karachi 20%, Lahore 12%, Gujranwala 11 and Islamabad 10 per cent.
“Thirty per cent of electricity produced is being wasted due to technical and administrative faults including electricity theft,” a senior Pepco official informed the committee.
Giving a break up of wastages, he said that electricity not utilised amounted to over 34 per cent in Hyderabad, 33 per cent in Peshawar, 22 per cent in Karachi and 10 to 15 per cent in Faisalabad, Islamabad and Gujranwala in 2010-11.
Nepra’s finances
Khalid informed the committee that Nepra has Rs978 million in bank balance to meet its expenditure while billions of rupees of power sector companies are pending with different public and private entities who have challenged their legality in various courts.
The panel’s chairperson Shahid Bugti directed Nepra to establish complaint cells at provincial level to address the complaints of consumers.
Meanwhile, Senator Safdar Abbasi said there was a lack
of political will to overcome the problem of load shedding in Pakistan.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 13th, 2011.
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Why is the Turkish ship docked at Karachi not producing power? Why are we paying rent on it? Why is still standing?
Power crisis of Pakistan cannot be resolved in short term. There is no short term solution. We can resolve power crisis on a long term basis only. We need to start working now on Hydal power plants, built dams especially Tarbela Dam. We need to ensure that if we do have enough coal reserves to produce energy, we need to expedite the process of inviting investors both foreign and local to invest in the project. We need to move away from thermal power plants in long term as it is costly.
If there was a short term solution, we would have adopted it to date and all the solutions (rental power plant, minimization of power theft etc) has been useless hence proving they are not short term solutions for reduction of power crisis but long term solutions for corrupt politicans to gather wealth.
We have to live with this energy crisis, which would worsen in the next five years, but if we initiate all the power projects (dams, wind mill power plants) from this year, we will be able to minimize the problem in the next five years. There is no short term solution, Only think of long term solutions!!
As your article states we produce only 11000MW out of the installed capacity of 21,000MW. Why is then Raja Parvez Ashraf running around scot free. His Rental Power scheme was a total disaster. You only draw his attention to the various interviews he gave when he was blatantly lying. By the way what is the status of the rental power plants. What are we paying the Turkish barge power house?
Looking forward for a time when there will be no electricity and no bills.
Crackdown on those who do not pay already. Circular debt is a cruel joke being played on those who do pay for the sins of those who do not pay.
Shed loads in different areas in proportion to the unrecovered amounts.
it sucks !