The government is working on a plan to outsource Operation and Maintenance (O&M) contracts of power generation companies to bring back lost capacity into the system, according to documents available with The Express Tribune.
Ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) members were informed in a presentation that power generation is fluctuating between 12,600MW to 14,100MW while the demand has increased to 17,600 MW, reveals the documents.
The government claimed that around 3,200MW has been added to the system, however, documents reveal that 15 power projects with 2,741.8MW net power generation capacity have been commissioned with an investment of $2.96 billion since March 17, 2009. Under the five-year plan 2011-15, the government plans to add 11,040MW in the national grid with estimated cost of over $17 billion.
Sources said that the Ministry of Water and Power would seek formal approval of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) to implement the plan.
The strategy
Fearing that power outages could badly damage the image of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) in the upcoming election, the government has decided to launch a mass campaign to educate office bearers on how to calm deal with the people fuming in their constituencies due to the outages. The Ministry of Water and Power has been tasked to educate the bearers.
Sources said that a comprehensive briefing over the power sector is being circulated among the office bearers of PPP to educate them.
Oiling the system
The government is working on rehabilitation plan to regain the lost generation capacity of old power generation plants. The power generation capacity of three Guddu power units declined to 195MW from 300 MW. After rehabilitation work, the government restored the lost generation capacity by 105MW.
The power generation capacity of three power generation plants in Muzaffargarh also declined to 450MW from original capacity of 600 MW. The government plans to start rehabilitation work on these plants to regain the lost power generation capacity.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 10th, 2011.
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