Shahbaz seeks PSDP allocation

Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has demanded establishment of an organised institution for regulating energy sector and allocation of a 30 percent share of public sector development programme for the development of energy sector. He was addressing the 2nd National Energy Conference 2012 hosted by him and presided over by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.
Chief Ministers of the four provinces, Prime Minister Azad Jammu & Kashmir Chaudhry Abdul Majeed, Governor Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Barrister Masood Kausar, Federal Ministers, assembly members, representatives of international donor agencies, experts associated with energy sector and prominent businessmen and industrialists were present in large numbers.
In his inaugural speech, Shahbaz Sharif presented a comprehensive roadmap for overcoming the current energy crisis in Pakistan as power shortage has destroyed national economy and adversely affected factories, banks, shops, offices and business centers.
He said a policy was formulated at the national energy conference held in Islamabad two years ago for overcoming power crisis and Punjab fulfilled its responsibilities in this regard but the issue of circular debt has still not been resolved and this debt has now reached a staggering figure of more than 400 billion rupees.
"If efforts were not made in the right direction, the country will not be able to come out of this vicious circle, as only conferences and seminars are not the solution to this serious issue," he added. He said Punjab government had presented its proposals in the energy conference arranged in Islamabad two years ago and important decisions were also taken on this occasion but the federal government failed in their implementation. Had these decisions been implemented Pakistan would not have been facing this serious situation, he added.
While presenting his recommendations for controlling the shortage of power and gas, he demanded that the quarterly schedule of gas and power should be announced and unscheduled load shedding be checked. He said there should be a uniform policy of load shedding of power and gas in all areas of the country. Supply of gas to power sector be increased and the plants showing better performance be given preference in fuel supply.
Referring to the short and medium term measures in energy sector, the Chief Minister proposed that one window facility be provided at Prime Minister''s Secretariat for fast track energy projects and a senior energy advisor be appointed to maintain co-ordination with all federal and provincial institutions, public sector enterprises and IPPs.
He further proposed that Discos be privatised for improving their efficiency and observed that it will also eliminate corruption. Incentives should be given on better recovery and timely payments should be made to Gencos. He further said full benefit should be taken from the alternative resources of power generation including coal, biogas, solar energy and hydel power.
The Chief Minister further said that power generation plants showing better performance should be provided fuel on priority basis. Moreover, he said, all out assistance should be extended to Sindh government for generation of power from Thar coal. He further said that sincere efforts should be made for the import of electricity from Iran through land routes to tackle energy problem in the country. He stressed the need for taking practicable, effective and consolidated measures as well as introducing meaningful reforms for overcoming energy crisis.
He said that comprehensive reforms would have to be introduced in the country in accordance with the organised economic reforms of China, Taiwan, Turkey and South Korea. The Chief Minister further said that payment ratio of Punjab province was much better than that of any other area of the country which can be judged from the fact that FESCO has only 11 percent line losses while the recovery rate is 99.8 percent.
He said that people of Punjab were paying their dues but they were part of a system, which favours thieves and defaulters and penalises the honest. The Chief Minister further said that 900-megawatt energy could have been produced from Chichoki Maliyan and Nandipur hydel power stations but the Ministry of Law did not accept the sovereign guarantee due to which the Chinese company left the country.
He said had these plants been set up, the power crises would have been controlled. He said measures should be taken for reducing the amount of power tariff bills for the poor people, which should benefit only this stratum of the society. He said it was decided in the last energy conference that export of energy from the grid of National Transmission and Dispatch Company (NTDC) would be reduced but the company has made an agreement under which it will be binding upon it to export 650 megawatt electricity daily for the next five years.
Similarly, he said, it was further decided in the conference that 183 million cubic feet gas will be supplied to the energy sector daily but the decision has not been implemented. He stressed the need for taking practical measures for the generation of energy from coal in Pakistan and said that the vast coal reserves of Thar are a blessing from which thousands of megawatt energy can be produced which will result in running of the factories, generation of job opportunities and strengthening of economy and above all getting rid from oil import. Shahbaz Sharif further said that 2000 megawatt energy can be produced from the bagasse of 75 sugar mills but no attention has been paid to this sector during the last four years.
The 2nd National Energy Conference 2012 was addressed by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, Prime Minister Azad Jammu & Kashmir Chaudhry Abdul Majeed, Chief Ministers of the other provinces, federal ministers and Country Director of Asian Development Bank. Experts associated with energy sector also expressed their views for the development of energy sector.