ISLAMABAD: On Sunday, the Power Division announced that it had ended power cuts across the country by injecting about 2,500MW additional electricity.
“In line with the commitment of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, load-shedding has been brought to zero with effect from 05:00 am on May 1,” said Power Minister Engineer Khurram Dastgir Khan. However, in a tweet, he added, “There was zero load-shedding on feeders with better recovery.”
The minister said more than 2,500MW had been added to the system. He said that the ministry was striving for uninterrupted electricity during and after Eid.
Reports from various parts of the country suggest that major urban centers had been exempted from power cuts. About 120 million cubic feet of gas from fertilizer plants and industrial captive power plants were diverted to generation companies, and the availability of a couple of private space power plants was under maintenance. However, people in mostly rural areas were still reporting power cuts.
Power Division says 2,500MW has been added to the system
Prime Minister Sharif, on April 26, ordered the diversion of natural gas from fertilizer and captive power plants and timely payment of funds to the power sector to ensure zero power cuts with effect from May 1.
“There are issues like shortfall and heatwave, but the prime minister showed zero tolerance,” Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb had announced.
The prime minister approved requests of the Power Division for diversion of natural gas from fertilizer plants and captive power plants of the industrial sector to the extent of 120mmcfd for seven days — from May 1 to 7 — to run more power plants in those crucial Eid days.
A substantial saving was also expected to accrue on account of subdued industrial ahead of Eid and lower commercial activities besides the closure of public and private offices and educational institutions.
The prime minister had ordered the relevant authorities to ensure that even high-loss making areas are facilitated with full power supply for the Eid period.
Increase in LNG supply
By May 8, the situation would further improve with LNG and furnace oil cargos discharged at ports, as the power sector would start receiving about 700mmcfd LNG instead of about 500mmcfd at present.
The government has been blaming the previous government for not repairing technical faults and ordering LNG, diesel and furnace oil, due to which 27 power units of 5,500MW capacity were out of order.
On Friday, Mr. Dastgir sought immediate payment of Rs329 billion to operationalize about 7,900MW plants, currently out of the system mainly due to fuel shortage and at least eight hours of outages across Pakistan.
The minister said the power sector’s circular debt stood at Rs2.46 trillion and about 5,740MW power plants were out of the system due to 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 utilize maximum generation capacity to overcome load-shedding and hoped the situation would improve over the next ten 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 load-shedding.