KARACHI: As the power-hit consumers of K-Electric are protesting in various city neighborhoods for the last few days, the leadership of KE including its CEO Moonis Abdullah Alvi met Sindh Minister of Energy, Imtiaz Ahmed Shaikh and other representatives of political parties on Wednesday.

The KE senior officials apprised them of the challenges being faced by the utility including the delay in the release of Tariff Differential Subsidies (TDS) claims and the rising cost of fuels for power production.

K-Electric claimed that it has made another payment of PKR 500 million to SSGC on 29 June 2022, bringing the total payout to over PKR 6 billion during the month.

Commenting on this, KE spokesperson said: “Despite ongoing financial challenges, KE continues to make payments to its fuel suppliers. We have made another payment of PKR 500 million to the SSGC on Wednesday, June 29, 2022.”

Commenting upon the development, the KE spokesperson added that “KE continues to face severe cash flow constraints amid the rising cost of fuel and delays in the release of TDS from the federal government which was also highlighted in the meetings with the provincial minister of energy and the representatives of political parties.

The minister and political parties’ representatives were also apprised of the rising demand and supply gap owing to the surge in temperature as well as because of the shortage of imported fuel for power production.

They were further briefed: “Due to the non-supply of indigenous gas, two power plants in the KE fleet capable of 200 megawatts remained non-operational for past many months. As the shortfall is persisting round the clock, the utility is compelled to conduct loadshedding even during the night hours.”

Elaborating power supply situation in the city, he added: “During last 24 hours, the average power supply to Karachi was 2,850 megawatts, including an average supply of 1,000 megawatts from the National Grid.”

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022