ISLAMABAD: As much as 15,473MW electricity is still not available to the system of the country due to scheduled outages, forced outages, system congestion, fuel shortage and less water releases from reservoirs, which is the main reason for the massive unscheduled load shedding across the country, well informed sources told Business Recorder.
Of this 15,473 MW out-of-system electricity, 1,946 MW is manifested in scheduled outage, 4,236 MW in 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.
Presently, the country’s installed capacity is 37,773 MW whereas dependable capacity is 35, 630 MW.
Pakistan’s hydel generation installed/ dependable capacity is 9,874 MW, of which 1,946 MW is on scheduled outage, but 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.
Fuel shortage behind power scarcity, Senate body told
The reason for less 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 stands 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.
Generation from wind farms stands at 535 MW against installed/ dependable capacity of 1,585 MW as 1,050 MW is not available due to low wind. Four wind power plants are running on commissioning test.
Solar plants installed capacity is 400 MW but supply is only 100 MW due to cloud cover and sunlight 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.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022