LAHORE, Jan 10: The Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) on Wednesday started supplying 72 million cubic feet per day (MMCFD) to the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda), helping the latter to generate additional 500MW and correspondingly reduce loadshedding.
According to Mr Mujahid Anwer, Senior General Manager (Distribution) of the SNGPL, the company had to borrow 65mmcfd from the Sui Southern Gas Pipeline Limited to supply around 65mmcfd gas to Wapda. It spared around 7mmcfd from its own system and started supplying 72mmcfd to Wapda.
Mr Anwer Khaled, Member (Power) Wapda, said that the additional supplies from the SNGPL and SSGPL of around 82mmcfd had allowed the authority to generate additional 500MW to bring the loadshedding to an end in the country.
Explaining the additional power generation, he said that Kot Addu Power Plant had started getting additional 60mmcfd and had started additional generation of 300MW, taking its total generation to 1470MW.
Similarly, he said, 17mmcfd at Faisalabad and Kotri Power Plants had helped the plants generate some 190MW. “The Independent Power Producers (IPPs) are generating 5,000MW and Tarbela and Mangla Dams are contributing over 2,100MW. This generation is sufficient to see the peak hours through.
But detractors maintain that Wapda had started getting only 82mmcfd against its total demand, and summer time consumption, of 300mmcfd. How can it claim to have done away with loadshedding with a paltry supply of 82mmcfd. It is more of a political statement than of reality.
"The authority is on record admitting a shortage of 1,800MW only a week back," says a former member (power). Now, it is claiming to have done away with loadshedding with additional supply of only 500MW. Where the rest of 1,300MW would come from and how can Wapda deal with the situation with only 500MW, he wondered.
During the last one week, hydel generation has gone down further as canal closure period took effect in the Punjab. The factual position would be that important and vocal urban centers like Lahore and Islamabad would start getting additional power supplies and burden of loadshedding would be passed on to hapless rural areas, he said.
