The National Assembly was informed on Thursday that the government was determined to decrease loadshedding duration during summer while electricity outages to be completely eliminated within four to five years as per the National Power System Expansion Plan.
In a written reply to the House during question hour, Minister for Water and Power Khawaja Mohammad Asif said that to reduce power loadshedding during the summer efforts were afoot to increase fuel supply, both furnace oil and gas, to Independent Power Producers (IPPs) and GENCOs power plants.
He said that IPP's generation has increased during last four days and the gap between demand and supply has been reduced; resultantly duration of loadshedding has also decreased considerably as compared to the last summer. To another question, he said that as per the national power system expansion plan, which is being updated regularly, the power balance indicated that the duration of loadshedding will be decreased gradually and hopefully eliminated in four to five years subject to the implementation of the plan.
Responding to another query, he said that Karkey Karadeniz Elektrik Uretim of Turkey has filed a claim of up to $2 billion against Pakistan in the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) Arbitration. He said the government has engaged a reputed international law firm "Allen & Overy" to defend the said claim. To another question, the Minister said that coal for power projects was mostly imported from Indonesia, Australia and South Africa. As far as Gaddani power project is concerned, he said that since all the power plants were being set up in the private sector, procurement of selected fuel shall be the responsibility of private power plants without any guarantee from the government.
Responding to supplementary questions, Minister of State for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali informed the House that the government has released Rs 25 billion for construction of Diamer-Bhasha Dam. He said the process of land acquisition for Diamer-Bhasha Dam was about to complete and the government wanted to complete the project through its own resources. However, some donor agencies have also expressed their interest to finance the project, he added.
The Minister told the House that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will perform groundbreaking of Diamer-Bhasha and Dasu dams in November this year. He assured the House that no controversial dam will be constructed without evolving consensus. He said the government was giving top priority to construction of dams to produce cheap hydro electricity. He said the first phase of Neelum-Jhelum Hydro Power Project will be completed by the end of 2016, which will add 969 MW of electricity to the national grid. The project will generate 5150 GWh of energy annually and it will save Rs 50 billion per annum.
Similarly, the government plans to construct Munda dam, which will generate 800 MW of electricity and also help irrigate the barren land, he said, adding Rs 600 million have been allocated for the project during the current financial year. In order to implement a comprehensive strategy to tackle price distortions, insufficient collection, governance and regulatory deficiencies and low efficiency in energy supply and distribution, he said that a number of steps were being taken like implementation of performance standards devised by NEPRA, capacity building of professionals, subsidy and cross subsidy, rationalisation of tariff and investment to upgrade power transmission and distribution system.
The House was informed that tariff of electricity in Pakistan is relatively higher than that of India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. The minister says that cheapest source of power generation is hydel which is not sufficient to meet the demand, which is mostly being met through thermal generation on RFO, HSD and gas.
He said the natural gas was another cheap source of power generation but it was also not available as per requirement of the system and resultantly RFO, a costly fuel, increased power tariff significantly. To another query, the Minister told the House that France was providing financial assistance for electricity projects including 11 million Euros for Mohmand Dam hydropower project and 50 million Euros for Harpo hydropower project.
Similarly, he said France has also shown its willingness to finance second rehabilitation phase of Warsak Hydroelectric Power Station at a cost ranging between 120 million Euros to 135 million Euros, rehabilitation upgradation and extension of existing Renala Hydel Power Station costing $20.0 million and capacity enhancement of Chitral Hydel Power Station at a cost of 13.0 million.