ISLAMABAD: The Power Division on Friday sought immediate payment of around Rs329 billion to operationalise about 7,900 megawatts of generation plants, currently out of system mainly due to fuel shortage and resulting in at least eight hours of outages across the country.

Federal Minister for Power Khurram Dastgir Khan, while speaking at his maiden news conference with Minister of State Hashim Notezai, said the power sector’s circular debt now stood at about Rs2.46 trillion and about 5,740MW of power plants were out of system due to all sorts of fuel shortages, including LNG, coal and furnace oil. Another 2,156MW were not available due to routine maintenance and repair issues.

He said these funds were urgently required to utilise maximum generation capacity to overcome loadshedding, and hoped the situation would improve over the next 10 days. Power companies required about Rs108bn till May 25, Rs136bn till June 7 and Rs85bn till June 15 for the sector to meet various contractual obligations necessary to address the issue of loadshedding.

Mr Khan blamed the previous PTI government for not making timely arrangements for supplying fuel to power plants, resulting in massive power outages across the country in tough weather conditions, and causing discomfort to the people. The previous government, he said, failed repeatedly on LNG pricing and supply arrangements. However, he said, the incumbent government would take all possible measures to curtail the menace of loadshedding.

Power Division seeks Rs329bn to operationalise 7,900MW of generation plants

The minister said the government had already constituted teams in all Discos for prompt redressal of local complaints during Eid holidays, and that leaves of the staff had been cancelled to cope with any untoward situation. Also, the government had assigned revenue targets to all Discos and directed them to enforce every step to stop power theft, he announced.

He also said PM Sharif, soon after taking over, had ordered to arrange fuel, and a number of non-functional power plants will start getting natural gas from May, which would be supported over the preceding few days with re-gasified liquefied natural gas supply. While the required quantities of furnace oil will also be available from May 2.

Mr Khan said the prime minister had ordered all possible actions required to end loadshedding from May 1, and the situation would start improving gradually when the 300MW Engro and 600MW Port Qasim power plants would start production.

He also said Discos had been directed to install all pending connections and ensure prompt redressal of consumers’ complaints.

The minister further said the circular debt had swelled from about Rs1.06tr at the end of the previous PML-N tenure to Rs2.46tr despite heavy payments when the PTI government left. Mr Dastgir wondered how the previous government did not make arrangements for fuel knowing well that summer was approaching. He claimed that at the end of the PML-N government on May 31, 2018, there was zero loadshedding despite the fact that it was facing capacity constraints when it had come to power in 2013.

The PML-N leader also regretted the violation of the sanctity of Masjid-i-Nabwi by some hooligans during the visit of Prime Minister Sharif, calling it very unfortunate. He appreciated the Saudi authorities for taking immediate action.

To a question, he said the board of directors of Discos would be revisited, adding an agreement with K-Electric was at an advanced stage. He said low-efficient power plants would be phased out with energy-efficient ones.

Published in Dawn, April 30th, 2022