ISLAMABAD: The country’s power system is reportedly generating about 50 percent less electricity - 18,000 MW - against dependable capacity of 35,630 MW due to which the entire country is facing 8 to 10 hours of unscheduled loadshedding across Pakistan, well informed sources told Business Recorder.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif convened a meeting on energy sector issues on Thursday (today). The Ministry of Energy has been directed to share a comprehensive brief and presentation on all issues including reasons for the ongoing loadshedding, circular debt, required tariff increase, fuel shortage, recovery of Discos and losses to be discussed during the meeting.
The system of Karachi Electric (KE) is separate from power Distribution Companies (Discos) that supply electricity to the country. However, KE is being supplied around 800 MW electricity these days from the national grid due to substantial shortfall in its Disco system. Presently, the country’s installed capacity is 37,773 MW.
Pakistan’s hydel generation installed/dependable capacity is 9,874 MW, of which 1,946 MW is on scheduled outage, however 4,525 MW is not available due to low hydrology. Hydel generation depends on IRSA indent/reservoir level/hydrology.
Installed capacity of RLNG/HSD/LSFO is 7,438 MW whereas dependable capacity is 6,862 MW. Of this, 10 MW is on forced outage whereas 2,605 MW is not available due to fuel shortage, which shows that only 4,247 MW capacity of RLNG/HSD/LSFO is available.
The reason for lower generation from RLNG/ HSD/ LSFO is that 600 MMCFD RLNG is allocated during peak hours against demand of over 700 MMCFD. GTPS, Rousch, FKPCL are under forced outage due to non-availability of fuel.
Installed capacity of Residual Fuel Oil (RFO) is 5,706 MW whereas dependable capacity is 5,060 MW. Of this, 958 MW is on forced outage, 900 MW is not available due to system congestion, 1,635 MW is not available due to fuel shortage. This implies available RFO capacity is only 1,567 MW. Jamshoro thermal power plant unit -1 is operational.
The available capacity of coal is 3,063 MW against installed capacity of 5,280 MW and dependable capacity of 4,944 MW. Of this, 1,881 MW is on forced outage. Engro- Thar complex is under forced outage, Sahiwal coal unit-2 is under forced outage, Port Qasim coal unit-1 is under forced outage.
Installed capacity of gas-fired power plants stood at 3,536 MW while dependable capacity is 3,282 MW, of which 1,275 MW is on forced outage whereas 212 MW is out due to fuel shortage.
Nuclear power plants are operating on full dependable capacity of 2,305 MW. Nuclear installed capacity is 2,490 MW.
Karachi Nuclear Power Plant (K-3) whose installed and dependable capacities are 1,100 MW and 1,040 MW respectively is running on commissioning (testing stage). It is delivering 750 MW free electricity in the evening and night.
Generation from wind farms stood at 535 MW against installed/ dependable capacity of 1,585 MW with 1,050 MW not available due to low wind. Four wind power plants are running on commissioning test. Solar plants with dependable and their installed capacity is 400 MW but supply is only 100 MW due to cloud cover, and are not available during night time.
Bagasse plants which are installed by the sugar mills are generating 166 MW against dependable capacity of 278 MW and installed capacity of 364 MW because Al-Moiz and Chiniot Power are under forced outage.
The sources maintained that overall 1,946 MW is on scheduled outage, 4,236 MW forced outage, 900 MW not available due to system congestion, 4,452 MW not available due to fuel shortage and 5,875 MW is not available due to low hydrology.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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