ISLAMABAD, Jan 9: The government on Tuesday decided to divert, as an interim arrangement, natural gas from Sindh to the Kot Addu Thermal Power Station in Punjab to produce 500MW of additional electricity in order to avert loadshedding.
The arrangement, worked out at a meeting presided over by federal Minister for Water and Power Liaquat Ali Jatoi, was later endorsed at another meeting presided over by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.
However, the meeting failed to come up with a solution to the power shortfall of about 1000MW to 2000MW which the country is likely to experience in the summer season this year when its overall system demand may increase to 14,500MW.
Informed sources said about 25 mmcfd of gas being supplied to the Karachi Electric Supply Company by the Sui Southern Gas Company Limited (SSGCL) would be diverted immediately to the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) through the integrated gas transmission system for supply to Kot Addu Thermal Station.
The KESC would instead maximize power production on high sulphur fuel oil to meet the shortfall arising out of its gas contribution to Wapda, the sources said.
Another 20-25 MMCFD of gas from industrial sector would also be diverted to the Kapco plant. Coupled with some other minor adjustments, the total gas supplies to Kapco plant would be enhanced to 82 mmcfd of gas to produce about 500MW more, taking its total production to around 1200 MW.
Some minor adjustments would also be made for optimal utilization of Wadpa's thermal power stations in Sindh on furnace oil. The sources said another marginal increase in hydel power supplies would be made available through adjustments in water discharges from dams. These measures together would help reduce immediate shortages to less than 200MW which could be adjusted without applying countrywide loadshedding in the short-term period.
Kapco project, with a total capacity of about 1600 MW, had been running on less than 700MW capacity for the last couple of weeks owing to reduction in gas supplies and resultant shortage of low sulphur fuel oil (LSFO). The LSFO stocks had also been consumed over the last month due to gas shortage.
"Loadshedding would be averted in the country as the gap between demand and supply would be bridged by supply of additional gas to the power projects with the internal adjustment of gas supply within power sector so that about 500MW more electricity could be generated by the thermal power plants," said Mr Liaqat Jatoi after a meeting with Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.
The secretary of petroleum, heads of power and gas utilities and generation companies also attended the two meetings. The secretary of petroleum and heads of both gas companies informed the meetings about low pressure of gas in the country due to cold weather which, he said, had caused shortage of gas supply to the power plants, affecting the generation capacity of these plants.
"Both SSGC and SNGPL would facilitate the readjustment of 82 MMCFD of gas and its re-allocation through their respective systems to the thermal plants including possible enhancement," a statement issued by the water and power ministry said.
The government has already lifted the ban on the import of light sulphur fuel oil (LSFO), and has asked the Pakistan State Oil (PSO) to speed up import of 50,000 tons of LSFO to maximise power generation from Kapco.
The government had banned import of the LSFO a few years ago to facilitate maximum utilisation of oil production from the Attock Oil Refinery.
