CM urged to take up power outages issue with Centre

Energy minister says prolonged supply disruptions can lead to law and order situation

KARACHI:

Sindh Energy Minister, Imtiaz Shaikh on Wednesday submitted his report on the meeting he held with K-Electric to resolve the issue of prolonged and unannounced load-shedding in Karachi.

The minister in his report mentioned that the meeting on the issue of load-shedding was held on the directives of Sindh chief minister.

He said that K-Electric CEO briefed the meeting about the load shedding plan and also shared the issues being faced by K-Electric. According to the KE, the allocation from NTDC has been reduced from 1300 MW to 950 MW for which load shedding is being done at night.

He further stated that the SSGCL has also reduced the gas supply pressure and the result thereof, the Power Generahon of K-Electric has been reduced by 200 MW.

The KE said that an amount of Rs330 billion is payable by the federal govt. Tariff differential subsidy is causing difficulties in payment to SSGCL.

Imtiaz Shaikh further stated in his note that Sindh chief minister may take up the matter with the federal government to resolve these issues as these issues will be resolved at the prime minister level.

The energy minister wrote that the K-Electric CEO was directed to rationalise the load shedding in all feeders of Karachi so that the supply of electricity during night hours could be maintained and avoid load shedding at all feeders in the city.

He said that it was decided that the K-Electric will manage and improve the supply of electricity within 24 hours.

The energy minister said that a monitoring cell will be established in the Energy Department comprising one member each from K-Electric and KW&SB and Energy Department, which will solely monitor the load shedding plan in Karachi. The cell will work round the clock.

He informed the CM that the provincial government will request to the prime minister for increase in the allocation of power from NTDC at least by 200 MW.

Imtiaz Shaikh noted that the provincial government will also ask the managing director of SSGCL to improve the gas supply pressure during night hours and also increase volume by 40 MMBTU to enable the K-Electric for power generation by 200 MW.

The energy minister also requested the chief minister to take up the payment issue of K-Electric on priority basis with the federal government in order to avert any law and order problem in the city and also to provide relief to general public.

Sindh Minister for Labour, Human Resource Department, Saeed Ghani; Special Assistant for Human Settlement Department, Liaquat Askani; MNA Sardar Nabeel Ahmed Gabool; MPA Javaid Nagori; representatives of Federal Minister for National Health, Abdul Qadir Patel and MNA Qadir Mandokhail.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 1^st, 2022.