Domestic consumers remained the biggest group when it came to electricity consumption. Households used 22,987 million kWh in the outgoing fiscal year. PHOTO: FILE
Successive governments blatantly violated the Gas Allocation and Management Policy by allocating almost all the additions in gas supply to industrial and transport consumers, while ignoring power plants even when the power sector was up on the priority list, according to Pakistan Economic Survey 2012-13.
The policy, which was devised in 2005 and then subsequently revised as the energy crisis deepened, states that power plants must be allocated additional supplies after the needs of domestic and commercial consumers have been met.
“According to the policy, the industry and compressed natural gas (CNG) sector were fourth on priority list, but were generally the largest beneficiary of incremental gas supplies between financial years 2005 and 2011,” the report said.
Contrary to complaints from the fertiliser sector about cuts in gas supplies, the survey says that 46% of additional gas supplies during the period went to the sector.
Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) and Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) have been blamed for going against the government policy when it came to gas allocation.
“Power sector was the major loser as gas was diverted to other sectors with absolute reduction of 33% during the period,” it noted.
This loophole in policy implementation forced power plants to use more of expensive furnace oil, which added to the circular debt.
Power sector’s share in total gas consumption dropped to 27.5% in 2012-13 from 43.7% in 2004-05, whereas power sector in neighbouring India and Bangladesh saw increases in gas share, the report said.
But the power sector in Pakistan still remains the largest consumer of gas.
The report also said that SSGC and SNGPL will be investing Rs55 billion in fiscal 2013-14 in the construction of new pipelines and projects to add more consumers.
Overall gas supplies decreased 2.2% to 1,139,253 million cubic feet in July-March 2012-13. There was no substantial increase in domestic production, the report says.
The Oil and Gas Development Company remained the largest producer of gas with share of 24.79% in overall output, followed by Pakistan Petroleum and Mari Petroleum Company.
Electricity woes
Despite recurring power outages, state-run electricity utilities linked more consumers to the grid. Total consumers on the Water and Power Development Authority’s (Wapda) network increased to 21.7 million in the July-March 2012-13 period from 20.8 million in the corresponding period of previous year.
Domestic consumers remained the biggest group when it came to electricity consumption. Households used 22,987 million kilowatt hour (kWh) in the outgoing fiscal year, lower than 23,137 million kWh consumed last year.
The report also said that Wapda’s controversial supply of power to the Karachi Electric Supply Company dropped to 4,092 million kWh in the first nine months of the current fiscal year against 4,319 million kWh in same period of previous year.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 14th, 2013.
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