News
Friday, July 06, 2012
Energy committee mulls ways to minimise power cuts in RamazanISLAMABAD: The energy committee, constituted by the federal cabinet, on Thursday finalised a road map for making available additional 2,050MW electricity to the system during Ramazan, official sources informed. Best efforts would be made and it would be ensured that there is no load shedding during sehr, iftar and Namaz-e-Tarawih and other prayer timings in the country.
The meeting, chaired by Federal Finance Minister Dr Hafeez Shaikh decided to arrange two trains against existing one train for increased supply of furnace oil to the power generation units across the country. Through these two trains, the furnace oil supply would be increased from 25,000 tonnes to 28,000 tonnes and even more during Ramazan and this step would help increase power generation by 250MW to the system. Some 650MW power at present being supplied to Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) would be diverted to Punjab and other parts outside the KESC jurisdiction to ensure reduction in load shedding. It was informed that the monsoon starting mid-July would enable the country to generate additional hydel power by 1,000MW and this additional power would be added to the system. It has been agreed between the government and independent power producers that IPPs would arrange generation of 150MW additional power through government-provided oil facility during Ramazan. The committee was informed that circular debt had increased to Rs 470 billion and its recovery was required otherwise the oil supply would hamper the government efforts to generate additional power during the next few months. sajid chaudhry
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk