Significant: 20-30% of all industries in major industrial areas of Karachi employ captive power plants, according to conservative estimates. PHOTO: FILE
Since gas is a relatively cheap commodity, if compared to furnace oil and diesel, most industries prefer installing gas-run captive plants in the country. Now, as the country faces acute gas shortages, gas distribution companies in Pakistan want to focus on the efficient use of the resource to conserve as much of it as possible.
“Efficiency is a relatively new phenomenon in our country, so our customers will take time to understand that we cannot progress without using gas efficiently,” Siddiqui told The Express Tribune here at the SSGC head office on Monday.
“If captive power plants are using 10 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) gas, this initiative on efficiency will certainly reduce it to 8mmcfd,” he observed.
He said the users of captive power plants had been notified last month, and the company intends to take action against those who fail to improve their working efficiency in the given period.
Siddiqui believes that the main reason behind the low efficiency of in-use captive power plants is their old age. In the last few years, many industries in Karachi – the financial and industrial capital of Pakistan – have turned to gas-run captive power plants as backup supply of electricity during hours of scheduled power load shedding. According to conservative estimates, around 20-30% of all industries in the major industrial areas of Karachi employ captive power plants, most of which are gas-fired.
The SITE Association of Trade and Industry’s former chairman Muhammad Irfan Moton confirmed that industries have received such directives from the SSGC, but he thinks that it is difficult to improve the efficiency of captive power plants from where the situation stands. SITE is one of the largest industrial zones in Karachi city; it houses over 4,000 industries.
“Efficiency is an issue for captive power plants, but the SSGC’s focus should have been on waste heat technology rather than captive power plants,” he said, referring to technology that recovers heat from generation plants and utilises it to economise the entire process and reduce wastage. “Many industries have already completed the installation of heat waste recovery technology to produce additional power, because it was a practical thing to do,” he claimed.
Former chairman of the Korangi Association of Trade and Industry Ehteshamuddin – another major industrial zone within Karachi city – said the efficiency of power generation plants is an extremely important issue, but that it will take a lot of time for industries to be able to move significantly in that direction.
Ehteshamuddin also supported Moton’s point, saying that installing heat recovery plants on boilers is much easier than improving the overall efficiency of captive power plants.
“There is nothing wrong with a desire to improve the efficiency of captive power plants, but we must take a practical approach in dealing with this issue,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 2nd, 2013.
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It is criminal waste if the energy production ( efficiency)is restricted to 30% pf its capacity.. In majority of industries outside Pakistan Plant load factor of energy production below 80% is unacceptable. (Ultimately it reduces your cost) . If the efficiency stands at 30% Gas provideer company should charge a higher tariff ( to penalise for wasting cheap fuel) for the gas used for captive power plant. Then only the desired results will come which is also in the interest of the nation.