ISLAMABAD: National Power Control Centre (NPCC), the System Operator (SO) of power sector, has submitted fuel (RFO and RLNG) requirements of government and private sector power plants for next three months (July, August and September) amid a massive forced and scheduled load shedding.
The country’s current electricity demand is about 35,000-MW including Karachi, of which only 25,000-MW demand is being met due to several reasons including fuel issues.
On Sunday, overall demand was over 30,500 MW in the country sans KE jurisdiction, whereas generation was recorded at 22,000MW showing a shortfall of 8500 MW.
Consumers facing ‘massive’ power load-shedding, ‘inflated’ bills
NPCC, in its latest letter has sought 647 MMCFD of RLNG for July, 567 MMCFD for August and 512 MMCFD for September 2023.
Plant-wise RFO requirement is as follows: (i) Atlas Power; July-17528 MT , August 14341 MT and September 9393 MT; (ii) Liberty Tech; July, 14527, August 7070 MT, September 2485 MT; (iii) Nishat Chunian; July 17556 MT, August 12395 MT, September 11939 MT; (iv) Nishat Power; July, 14268 MW, August 12578 MT, September 8822 MT; (v) Hubco Narowal; July 11154 MT, August 9416 MT, September 7009 MT: (vi) Lalpir; July 24269 MT, August 20810 MT, September 15160 MT; ( vii) Saba power; July 16882, August 13732 MT, September 9839 MT; (viii) KEL; July 12844 MT, August 11375 MT, September 8034 MT and; (ix) Pakgen; July 24091 MT, August 20948 MT and September 15260 MT.
According to NPCC, total RFO requirement for July is 190517 MT, 155174 MT for August and 118639 MT for September 2023 which is subject to revision of KAPCO’s PPA, which is under process.
NPCC’s General Manager, Sajjad Akhtar, in his letter also highlighted that two hour load management is considered as per direction of Power Division, adding that generation shortfall will further increase in case of non-supply of required fuel and any other unforeseen event.
These are tentative average figures. Variation in consumption may be observed as actual system dispatch will depend on plant availability, system demand, Economic Merit Order (EMO) and availability of network.
NPCC argued that latest merit order for June 2023 has been considered for preparation of anticipated fuel requirements though there may be change in EMO in overall and individual plant-wise consumption of RGO during real time operations.
NPCC, in its letter has also maintained that apart from the operational requirement of estimated fuel oil at various power plants, the fuel oil stock consumed must be replenished by consistent/ cycle building-up of oil stock at all oil-based power plants in accordance with their relevant PPA, so that system requirement could be met and any power shortfall due to fuel shortage could be avoided.
NPCC has also urged the Central Power Purchasing Agency -Guaranteed (CPPA-G) to ensure necessary payments to power plants for timely procurement of fuel to avoid fuel shortage and load management.
Any additional RLNG made available to power sector will be utilized according to the prevailing EMO as and when allocated. Variations in RLNG supply to power sector from already committed supply will cause variations in consumption of RFO/HSD, said Sajjad Akhtar, GM, NPCC.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
Comments
Comments are closed.