Pakistanis to suffer menace of loadshedding by December this year

ISLAMABAD: No respite for Pakistanis from the menace of prolonged loadshedding as the Minister for Power Khurram Dastgir announced that the power crisis would end by December this year due to unavailability of fuel including coal, gas and furnace oil.

Khurram Dastgir, while addressing a press conference yesterday, claimed that consistent and uninterrupted electricity was supplied to industrial sector to protect employment of thousands of Pakistani despite carrying out load-shedding for domestic consumers.

However, his claim was far away from the factual grounds as the citizens in several parts of the country are currently facing 14-18 hours loadshedding. Earlier, the state minister for petroleum Musadik Malik announced that the power crisis will be started to reduce on July 15.

He said various power plants having 6000 MW capacity were closed due to unavailability of fuel including coal, gas and furnace oil. However, the incumbent government arranged fuel for all the plants in the shortest possible time and made them functional except K-2 nuclear plant which was closed for refueling, according to APP.

He said that the K-2 plant would also start its 1100 MW production before Eidul Azha. 720 MW Karot hydropower plant has already started its full operation while Neelum Jhelum hydropower plant completed during PML-N government tenure in 2018 was also generating 969 MW.

The minister said the entire country was facing the menace of power loading which has three basic reasons including Imran’s enmity towards CPEC, miss-use of NAB, unprecedented heat wave in April and unabated fuel (coal, gas-oil) prices hike at the international market.

He said power demand witnessed 30 per cent increase as compared to last year during the said period despite increasing 20 per cent generation this year.

He said record demand of 30,009 MW was recorded on June 30 in the history of Pakistan while generation remained at 21,842 MW against the total demand. Around 6,000 MW shortfall excluding areas of high losses was recorded, he added.

Khurram Dastgir said PML-N’s past government had overcome power load-shedding in 2018 and set up 4 RLNG based, 3 coal-based and 2 nuclear-based power plants besides Neelum Jhelum Power Projects. Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had performed the groundbreaking of the 720 MW Karrot Power plant, he added.

He said the foundation of even 5000 MW which would be added to the national grid system during this year was also laid by Nawaz Sharif.

He said Imran Khan always misguided the people about the power generation in the country. 1214 MW local Thar Coal based Shanghai Electric project could not be started due to enmity of Imran to CPEC, he added.

Dastgir said all legal and regulatory issues have now been addressed and 1214 MW Shanghai Electric project would start generation by December this year. Similarly, 1200 MW RLNG Trimmu Power Plant which has already been completed but the past government was not providing gas for its testing would now start operation in next 2-3 months, he said.

He said water inflow in dam has also been gradually increased which would help enhance hydel generation.

The minister said circular debt was Rs 1050 billion in 2018 which has surged to Rs 2467 billion during Imran’s tenure.

He said record payment was made to the power sector and situation would improve in coming days.

He said an agreement has been inked with Iran for supply of 100 MW power supply to Gwadar and Makran division. Efforts were underway to purchase coal from Afghanistan for running imported coal-based power plants. He expressed the hope that the power situation would significantly improve after July 22.

In response to a question, the minister said rebasing of power tariff would be carried out in three phases. The last rebasing of the tariff was made in February 2021, he said. However, he said that prices of imported fuel have jacked up in the international market.

To another question, he said past PML-N has started Lahore-Mattari transmission project for enhancing transmission capacity. However, many transmission projects of NTDC were still pending, he said.

Musadik Malik’s statement

Minister of State for Petroleum Musadik Malik announced on Friday that the government will introduce a programme aimed at utilising Pakistan’s own resources for power generation to end the menace of load-shedding and reduce dependency on imported fuel.

Speaking at a press conference, he added that even if Pakistan managed to buy fuel from the international market at competitive rates, it would still build import pressure and drain foreign exchange reserves.

“We are developing a roadmap to utilise our own assets for power generation. Under the initiative, local resources will be used to generate energy,” he said.

He informed the participants that Pakistan’s indigenous gas deposits were depleting at a rate of 10% per annum therefore, “new wells should have been dug years ago”.

Under the government’s plan to use local fuel reserves, consultations would be held with the exploration and production companies and incentives would be offered to them to explore deposits in Pakistan, Malik was quoted by Aaj News.

He highlighted that foreign companies that have closed operations in the country would be invited back through an incentive package.

“Foreign companies bring modern technology with them which minimises the cost of digging and extracting reserves,” he said.

Is there any solution?

Analysts said that the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) government proved to be a complete failure in controlling the inflation, fuel and power crises. They said that the power crisis was almost resolved during Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government led by former premier Imran Khan. They suggested the PML-N government seek assistance from the former ministers of the previous PTI government in resolving the power crisis to provide some relief to the nationals.