Power companies warned against unplanned outages

Minister asks them to come up with estimates of power generation in upcoming year

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Power Division Sardar Awais Ahmed Khan Leghari has categorically told chief executives of power distribution companies that unplanned load-shedding would not be tolerated in any part of the country.

Chairing a meeting held on Friday to finalise reports about constraints faced by the distribution companies and the National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC), Leghari instructed the chief executives to ensure required power generation and be vigilant about unannounced load-shedding.



He was given a briefing about power generation and consumption across the country. Power Division secretary, distribution companies' joint secretary, NTDC joint secretary and Pakistan Electric Power Company (Pepco) general manager were also present in the huddle.

The minister asked the distribution companies to share capacity and power generation data of all feeders for 2017 and also asked about expected power production from January to December 2018.

He called for bridging the gap between demand and supply of electricity and sought demand projections to find out how much power and resources would be required.

"At present, the power generation system is smoothly working, but the dire need is to examine that this system is able to produce sufficient power to meet all commercial, domestic and industry needs," he said.

He directed relevant officials to call a meeting on Monday and submit a report in that regard.

A couple of days ago, Leghari had announced that some heads would roll in the electricity distribution companies next month due to their poor performance.

He was speaking at a press conference at the launch of mobile application "Roshan Pakistan" designed to give consumers access to vital information about their electricity bills and the supply situation.



Responding to a question about the measures taken to recover receivables of power companies that had gone up to Rs800 billion by September 30, 2017, Leghari clarified that collection of the receivables was one of the key performance indicators set by the government.

Of the Rs800 billion in receivables, Rs600 billion was due to be paid by the private sector.

"We are reviewing the performance of distribution companies and some of the heads will roll in January," he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 30^th, 2017.

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