Power outages in Punjab worsening day by day

Despite higher oil and gas supply quota, load-shedding peaks to 18 hours.

LAHORE: Power outages in Punjab have taken a turn for the worse over the past few days as efforts by the concerned ministries and distribution companies have so far failed to produce results.

In Lahore, twelve hours of load-shedding in a day is now routine, but outages on a few occasions have touched the 18-hour mark despite higher provisions of gas to the independent power producers (IPPs) by the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines (SNGPL). Routine life or businesses were suffering badly in the present situation as there was no schedule for power outages.

National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) Director General Tariq Majeed said that power generation had improved to 300 megawatts (MW) as 57 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) of gas was diverted to the Lahore-based IPPs by SNGPL. Four IPPs namely Saif, Sapphire, Orient and Halmore each with a power generation capacity of 225MW were operating at just 35% of their capacity.

Oil supply had also improved and currently 19,000 tons was being supplied to IPPs. However, Majeed was still unsure whether massive power outages could be cut in the near future or not.

“I am not sure if power outages will come down in the future as it depends upon availability of oil and gas. In fact, if we manage to cap generation at this level it would be a success story,” Majeed said, while talking to The Express Tribune.

Demand for power was recorded at 15,000MW, whereas generation clocked in at 9,800MW, depicting a shortfall of 5,200MW.

Last week, SNGPL was recommended by the Ministry of Water and Power and the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources in a meeting to provide 150mmcfd of gas to four IPP’s to add 900MW into the system; however the suggestion was not implemented.

Daily furnace oil requirement by IPPs have gone above 3,000 tons costing about Rs2 billion, but due to non-payment Pakistan State Oil is finding it difficult to maintain the desired level of fuel supplies.

Hydel generation is also below potential due to lesser inflows in dams. Data from Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) shows that water inflow at Tarbela and Mangla reservoirs was 31,600 cusecs and 37,100 cusecs respectively, whereas outflows for both of them was recorded at 40,000 cusecs.

Lower inflows and higher outflows means that Wapda will be forced to balance both, resulting in lower power generation from hydropower sources, which in turn will result in more power outages.

Shortfall at Lahore Electric Supply Company (Lesco) fluctuates between 1,300MW to 1,800MW, depending upon the quota to Lesco by NTDC. Total demand hovers around 3,000MW and with this shortfall Lesco is unable to implement scheduled load-shedding, said Farasat Nauman, director operations of Lesco.

“We are dependent on the quota provided to us by the NTDC. We are helpless, so we conduct load-shedding according to supply,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 25^th, 2013.

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