Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) has demanded immediate supply of the government's already committed quota of 276MMCFD of gas that the Economic Co-ordination Committee of Federal Cabinet has recently re-approved, and said that the government needed to revise its policy of preferring a few industrial units to about 22 million power users of Karachi.
KESC had been expecting the ECC decisions to be implemented but, contrary to the expected increase in gas supply, SSGC further dropped gas supply to KESC unilaterally on Sunday morning from 160 MMCFD to around 111MMCFD. In the summer of 2010, KESC had received over 200MMCFD of gas regularly.
KESC understands that any reduction in gas supply for power generation was in effect a move against the life of the Metropolis. KESC maintained that every time SSGC faces any supply issue they find it convenient to curtail KESC's supply while maintaining regular flow to a few industrial units, a strategy beyond comprehension.
SSGC being a public sector company needs to review its policies keeping public interests supreme. KESC had already been operating at 40 percent less than its approved quota of 276MMCFD but this supply was not stable either. The cut by SSGC Sunday caused immediate tripping of several turbines and engines and brought the power generation further down. KESC has still been maintaining previous load shedding plan by using more furnace oil but it would be forced to further extend load-shedding duration further for need of fuel.
The KESC believes that all stakeholders and providers of energy sector need to keep the interest of general public supreme and consider their power requirements above the individual interests.-PR