Gencos asked to keep plants operational round the clock

Federal Minister for Water and Power, Liaquat Ali Jatoi on Thursday directed all Generation Companies (Gencos), including Muzaffargarh, Guddu, Jamshoro and Lakhra thermal power stations to keep their plants operational round the clock to meet electricity demands.
He also asked the authorities to expedite repair work on two units at Guddu and Muzaffargarh thermal power stations so that the power generation could be further increased to meet the summer requirements. Chairing a high level meeting convened to review the overall power generation situation, he stressed the need to ensure implementation of national conservation policy.
Wapda Chairman and CEOs of Gencos apprised the minister about the performance of generating units and some constraints. They gave the assurance that some of the units at Guddu and Muzafargarh would be made operational in the shortest possible time.
Wapda was also directed to approach the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Company Limited (SNGPL) to increase the gas allocation for some of its units located in Faisalabad and Muzaffargarh which would help it maximising power generation. He stated that poor communities with nominal consumption had to suffer load shedding while the rich ones continued to use power indiscriminately.
He also decided to encourage the consumers to use energy saver bulbs to conserve at least 250 MW electricity as a long-term mechanism to cope with the shortage of power in future. Jatoi stated that government had reduced duty from 15 percent to 10 percent and withholding tax from 6 percent to 2 percent to encourage use of savers at lower prices.
He also directed Wapda to upgrade the existing grid stations and replace the existing dilapidated transmission lines to ensure smooth and uninterrupted supply of electricity to the consumers and to reduce the line losses.
The meeting decided to set up a monitoring system in NPCC/NTDC to check the unannounced load shedding in the country and directed the Member (Power), Wapda to have constant liaison with NPCC/Gencos and submit report regularly to Chairman Wapda and the ministry.
The meeting, which was attended by Adviser, M/O Water and Power, Chairman and Member Power, Wapda, Chairman, Irsa, CEOs, NTDC and NPCC and all CEOs of Gencos besides senior officials of the Ministry, appreciated the role of Irsa for releasing additional water in the national interest.