Business

Prime minister rejects summer load-shedding plan

PM’s secretary terms ministry’s outages plan just a desk study

Zafar Bhutta May 04, 2017

PHOTO: REUTERS

ISLAMABAD: The Prime Minister’s Office and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif have rejected the summer load-shedding plan framed by the Ministry of Water and Power, saying the proposal was based only on desk studies.

Their response came after the water and power secretary presented the load management position of power distribution companies before a high-level meeting last month.

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According to the secretary, power load-shedding was being carried out for six hours in urban areas, 8 to 12 hours in rural areas and four hours in mixed industrial load areas in all jurisdictions covered by the distribution companies except for Tribal Areas Electricity Supply Company (Tesco).

However, there were no outages in the independent industrial load areas. In the far-off regions covered by Tesco, people were enduring 18 hours of load-shedding.

The secretary revealed that the Ministry of Water and Power had held a meeting with representatives of all distribution companies through video conference on April 20 to discuss the load management plan for the summer of 2017.

In the huddle, it was decided that all distribution companies would utilise the maximum electricity allocated by the National Power Control Centre (NPCC) and ensure minimum power cuts in their respective areas.

The prime minister pointed out that the water and power ministry had committed that electricity supply would be cut for three hours in urban areas and for four hours in rural areas in the summer.

However, the plan was not being followed at all. In fact, the duration of load-shedding was 100% more than the approved plan.

The premier asked about the reasons for failing to honour the commitment. He insisted that a rise of 2 to 3-degree Celsius in the temperature should not have led to such a big increase in load-shedding.

Moreover, he said, the lower water level in the reservoirs had never been highlighted in earlier presentations to the Cabinet Committee on Energy.

The chief minister of Punjab also did not agree with the figures of load-shedding, arguing that urban areas of the province including Lahore were experiencing 10 to 12 hours of outages.

The water and power secretary presented different scenarios about the expected power generation, demand, shortfall and load-shedding.

Based on a 7% increase in demand, there will be six hours of load-shedding in urban areas and 8 to 12 hours of outages in rural areas in the last 10 days of April.

In the first 20 days of May, there will be six hours and eight hours of load-shedding in urban and rural areas respectively. In the last 10 days of the month, during which Ramazan will also begin, load-shedding will be brought down to three hours for urban areas and four hours for rural regions.

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He suggested that this would be managed by initiating eight hours of load-shedding in industrial areas and for nine hours in the mixed industrial load areas. “This schedule of load-shedding will continue for the remaining part of summer and it will be brought down to zero after Ramazan.”

Secretary to the prime minister, while questioning the analysis, said the gap between demand and supply of electricity would widen with the rise in temperature.

He was of the view that the load-shedding plan had been based on desk studies and the projected power generation and demand did not present the real picture. “It should rather have been estimated on the basis of actual generation and demand.”

Published in The Express Tribune, May 4^th, 2017.

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COMMENTS (15)

Lolz | 7 years ago | Reply @Raju: You also seem an innocent guy. When they were into elections in 2013, did they mention all these excuses you are highlighting? No, they promised to address the issues. And Musharraf, dude you should ask the sitting government for that. And yes, I can't see any progress in electricity generation as well as transmission. When the energy sector of a country is still running by Independent Power Producers (IPPs) and that using petrol, you don't call it progress. There are countries in the world where the parliament only gets 3 years to perform before the next election.

khan | 7 years ago | Reply @Kamran: he did nothing for the first 3 years except the poorly planned nandipur project he woke up yesterday and decided to do fast pace LNG, too little, too late adn too expensive

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hamza khan | 7 years ago | Reply i am convinced that this summer will be very difficult and might be the undoing of the PML-N government. ppl will not forgive them after the amount of hype they have created about ending 'once and for all'. lets see..just a hunch

hamza khan | 7 years ago | Reply @salman: hahahahah...this made me laugh!!

hamza khan | 7 years ago | Reply @Kamran: the only leaders like that are zardari, who if you call him a leader that is something to discuss first. hahah

cautious | 7 years ago | Reply Anyone think that his minister is going to provide a conservative plan which projects higher outages than expected? If anything this Load Shedding Plan is optimistic.

Adeel Qadri | 7 years ago | Reply lolz, before Elections, he was about to end load shedding in 6 months, and every summer, we hear the same story. @kamran, you'r naive like many others.. this problem wont be solved until dams will b built. Bikkhi, Nandi pur.. all projects are hit by corruption and not generating full capacity. Making fool to Pakistanis and thankfully we r among those who become fool not once, not twice or thrice but all the time. :D

Raju | 7 years ago | Reply @Lolz: Yes it is his third time in his office, but he was not able to complete the five year governance period in his last two terms and I hope you know the reasons very well. On both occasions, he only spent two years before his government was rolled up by establishment and others. This is the first time PML-N government has entered into 4th year and he is doing his best, can't you see it?. Moreover do you have courage to ask Mr. Musharraf who ruled this country for 10 years but couldn't end the energy crises and you are expecting the results from PML-N here in 04 years? They are working and you will see the result. Wait and watch.

Lolz | 7 years ago | Reply @Kamran: You seem an innocent Pakistani. This is the 4th year of his third time in PM office and he behaves as an innocent as yourself. Sleep well dear.

Parvez | 7 years ago | Reply The PM must muster the courage to sack the concerned Ministers tasked with ensuring no load shedding..........All he can do is make hollow statements.

Nasir | 7 years ago | Reply @Kamran: Yes. He is doing it when election is on the next corner and people like you would again vote for him. How innocent

salman | 7 years ago | Reply So it took them 4 years to realise the computation of their figures is incorrect! Truly we are blessed to have such extraordinary governance.

Faraz | 7 years ago | Reply After reading this article, it appears this is the 1st year of their 1st tenure, rather than 4th year, and 3rd time in office. So much for experience.

Rollin & Trollin | 7 years ago | Reply Not the SC nor IK's machinations can have the PM thrown our of his cozy air conditioned cocoons but rather irate citizens having to endure year in year out blistering summer heat that is increasing with each year. Forget the metrobus and solve the energy crisis !!

Kamran | 7 years ago | Reply At least he is taking this load-shedding matter seriously and chairing the energy meetings on regular basis. This shows that he is worried about the power cuts and wiling to resolve this issue once for all. Not like other leaders who have done nothing in past and now only criticizing.

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