March 07, 2007	Wednesday	Safar 17, 1428

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LAHORE, March 6: Wapda Chairman Tariq Hamid on Tuesday again forewarned the public of massive loadshedding ahead, asking them to conserve energy for meeting the expected shortfall in power production this summer.

Talking to newsmen after a seminar on energy conservation, arranged by the Institution of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Pakistan (IEEEP), he said that no power generation project was due to come online during the next two years.

The situation called for doubling the conservation efforts, which, he said, everyone must join. Industrialists, he said, should also play their role by staggering holidays and switching over to off-peak hours for production.

Such efforts, on the part of industrialists, could provide 25 per cent relief as far as conservation efforts were concerned, he added.

Commenting on the allegations about lack of planning in Wapda, he said the authority had massive skill base and prepared all kinds of required planning. But, he said, the planning was neither being put to use by others (government agencies) nor Wapda itself was being allowed to execute the same. Instead of asking Wapda to plan and built new projects, it was being repeatedly asked to reduce line losses, he lamented. No one is ready to realise that no amount of reduction in line losses could fill the current gap in demand and supply of electricity, he argued. The LesCo, FesCo and MepCo had already reduced losses to 9, 12 and 15 per cent, respectively, he said.

In addition to five dams announced by the president, the authority was preparing feasibility studies for 10 more hydel projects, but none of them would come online over the next two years, he said.