Power supply to improve as gas outages end

LAHORE:

Pakistan Electric Power Company (Pepco) Director General (DG) Muhammad Khalid has said that resumption of full gas supply by the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) from Wednesday would lead to addition of around 800 megawatts of electricity to the system.

In a media briefing here on Tuesday, Khalid said that so far gas supply was very low but as per contract, SNGPL was bound to resume full supply from March 16.

He said that currently Kotri power plant was receiving 13 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) of gas whereas Jamshoro plant was getting 30 mmcfd and Guddu power plant 165 mmcfd. Previously, the Kotri and Jamshoro plants were not provided with gas at all, he added.

Referring to power supply, Khalid said that due to a change in weather, the demand has increased but shortfall remained the same as Pepco has started operating some of its power plants. Till June, another 900MW of electricity will be added to the system which will curtail outages.

He said that in order to make the load situation better in the Lahore Division, NTDC has added a new 600 MVA transformer to the Sheikhupura 500KV grid station at a cost of Rs917 million. Previously, the grid was operated with three 600 MVA transformers.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 16^th, 2011.