ISLAMABAD: Caretaker Minister for Water and Power, Dr Musadik Malik on Wednesday revealed that the ministry has sought Rs 150 billion from the Finance Ministry to clear outstanding dues of Independent Power Producers (IPPs) which are facing default in payment to lenders and investors.
"The minister has proposed to supply furnace oil to the IPPs for 90 days, payment of which will be given directly to PSO which has been accepted by the companies. But they are also asking for payment of capacity insurance and for an operator," an official said.
This was the crux of a meeting between the caretaker Minister and representative of IPPs who are fighting since long to get due amount from the National Transmission and Dispatch Company (NTDC), the power purchaser. Minister, however, assured that the government would fully cooperate with IPPs established under 2002 policy to run the power plants at maximum capacity and resolve their problems on priority basis.
The minister appreciated the role of IPPs in the power sector saying that the government is planning to generate maximum electricity from efficient plants instead of inefficient plants by ensuring supply of oil and gas to them. He said energy crisis is a national crisis and it has to be resolved by co-operating with each other. Industry is facing difficulties due to severe power outages, exports are falling and unemployment is rising.
Malik said that the Ministry has requested the government for release of Rs 150 billion for payment to power companies in order to ease the crisis. However, he was not sure how much the Finance Ministry will agree to give for this purpose.
The Ministry of Petroleum has also been asked for supply of additional 150 mmcfd gas to power plants. He said that we are optimistic that the load shedding issue can be resolved by taking right steps. He sought co-operation from the IPPs and proposed that if agreed by IPPs, the government would provide oil to the more efficient private power plants for 60 days in return for full capacity generation of their plants. This would help to increase the generation by 500 MW. The supply of 150 mmcfd gas would also help to increase power generation by 550 MW. Both the steps would reduce the gap between demand and supply and reduce load shedding. The government is also taking steps to improve the efficiency of Gencos, he added.
"Minister has discussed his plan with the IPPs but did not give any concrete commitment on clearance of outstanding dues," one of the participants said. Earlier, the IPPs representative one by one briefed the meeting on their problems and their outstanding dues. They also gave suggestions to improve power generation and assured co-operation to the government to reduce energy shortage. They also asked the ministry for early payment of their outstanding dues. The meeting was attended by Secretary Additional Secretary and Joint Secretary of the Ministry, MD NTDCL, MD PPIB and other senior officials of the Ministry, NTDCL, WPPO and PPIB.