Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani Friday constituted a three- member ministerial committee to examine and prepare a comprehensive report on the electricity load management within a week. Minister for Water and Power, Raja Pervez Ashraf, Minister for Petroleum, Syed Naveed Qamar and Prime Minister''s Advisor on Finance, Dr Hafeez Sheikh will be members of the committee.
The Prime Minister directed that the report be presented in the next meeting. The Prime Minister was chairing a special meeting on Power Load Management situation here at PM''s House this evening. The Prime Minister said that this meeting has been convened in the context of rising demand of electricity during summer. The prolonged energy crisis he added is taking its toll both economically and socially.
The Prime Minister said, soon after coming into power, the Government launched a crash program to address the energy crisis. He said that despite addition of new capacity the increasing demand is yet a challenge. The power generation plants which are on track for induction into system in coming months, he directed be expedited.
As regards Rental Power Projects, the Prime Minister said these are expensive and have been undertaken as a stop-gap arrangement. Only the limited number of RPPs he said which were cleared by the Cabinet after ADB audit be implemented while ensuring complete transparency.
The Prime Minister said specific timelines for implementation of new IPPs be identified and strictly adhered to as un-announced load shedding imposes heavy costs especially on students and patients. The schedule of load management he added be announced in advance so that people can adjust their own programmes accordingly.
Earlier, the Prime Minister was briefed that load growth maintained upward movement adding to demand as poor hydrology and 40 percent less rainfall in the country reduced average hydel generation. He was informed that IPPs were delayed due to global financial melt down and security situation in the country.
The Prime Minister was informed that under his direction process is underway for expediting the commissioning of 10 IPPs already contracted, addition of 8 Rental Power Plants (RPPs), and rehabilitation/replacement of existing de-rated generation plants of public sector. It was also mentioned that shortage of gas supply to generation plants forced to switch over to furnace oil which increased the cost of production.
The cost of production it was added is higher than the cost being charged from consumers. The pending payments and non-payment of dues by four distribution companies supplying power to the provinces of Sindh, Balochistan and NWFP has also been causing difficulties and adding to the circular debts.
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