ISLAMABAD: Minister for Water and Power Khawaja Asif on Monday apologized to the nation for unannounced loadshedding over the weekend and said the outages occurred when two transformers went out of order in Lahore on July 12.
Addressing a press conference here, he said T-II and T-IV transformers developed a fault, creating 1500 MW shortfall in the entire system. Resultantly, the people of Punjab had to face power outages on July 12 and 13. The five distributing companies of the province exceeded their limits to meet the demand, which further aggravated the situation, triggering a loadshedding in the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi as well.
During the two days, Khawaja Asif, who was flanked by Minister of State Abid Sher Ali and Secretary Nargis Sethi, said power generation plunged to 13000MW with demand ranging from 19000MW to 20000MW, leaving a gape of 6000MW to 7000MW.
As on today, he said, the situation was swiftly going to normal as T-IV transformer had been restored while work on the T-II restoration was in final stages.
He said the government could not rectify the entire power system in a year. No promise would be made with the masses, which could not be fulfilled and the government would not keep the people in the dark and provide them every detail, he added.
He said the government was taking serious measures to rectify problems at generation and transmission stages. In next four years, around 7000 MW would be added to the system as a result of ongoing power projects including hydel and alternative energy, he added.
The minister said the situation would further improve, when LNG import would start by the this year end.
He said by power supply, the government kept the wheel of industrial sector moving, where the people were now earning livelihood.
He said the government was also giving priority to domestic consumers, who were provided 50 mmcfd gas out of 114 mmcfd, which was sought for power generation in the holy month of Ramazan.
He said on their part the consumers should show austerity and adopt conservation while utilizing the facility.
He said presently the power was being wasted to some extent. The government was launching a campaign to create awareness among the masses regarding energy conservation, prevent lines losses and overcome power theft which were a relatively short-cut solution to bridge supply and demand gap.
Owing to non-resolution of the issues, the minister said the circular debt had again resurrected, which was now around Rs 300 billion.
He said the Azad Jammu and Kashmir government had outstanding power due of Rs 37 billion, Sindh Rs 57 billion, Balochistan Rs 106 billion and Punjab Rs 10 billion.
He said efforts were being made to settle issues with regard to dues against the provinces.
He said there was a need to initiate integrated efforts to improve the entire system. Currently below 220kv power systems were more vulnerable to problems, which caused outages, he added.
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