May 03, 2007	Thursday	Rabi-us-Sani 15, 1428

LAHORE, May 2: Textile mills have offered to provide up to 200-250MW of electricity from their furnace oil-fired power units to Wapda on a 30-day notice provided the utility agrees to pay a price of Rs1.31 per unit on top of the cost of fuel.

“We’ve for long been discussing with Wapda the possibility of selling electricity to it so that the public utility can bridge the current gap between the demand and supply of electric power, which has led to widespread load-shedding around the country,” Punjab Aptma Chairman Samir Saigol told a press conference here on Wednesday.

He said the textile industry had furnace oil fuelled captive power plants with a capacity of about 400MW lying idle since the mills had already shifted to gas-fired power generation to reduce their generation costs.

He said the industry had been negotiating with Wapda the price, which was far below the rates at which the public utility purchases power from any existing or proposed independent power producer (IPP) generating electricity from furnace oil.

“What we are asking is Rs1.31 per unit from Wapda, exclusive of the cost of furnace oil used. This is quite reasonable because a major chunk of it would be used for covering the maintenance of the power units and other operational expense. However, Wapda has so far not shown any signs to accept the offer,” he said.

Wapda is currently facing a gap of about 1,500MW in demand and supply of electricity, which has forced it to go for what the utility calls as load management. Reports suggest that Wapda is resorting to two-hour load-shedding daily in the urban areas alone. The situation in the rural areas is described to be even worse.

If Wapda agrees to purchase power from the textile industry, it will help it bridge the power shortages by up to 17 per cent. “Besides, it will also help the mills recover to some extent their investments on installation of power generation capacity, which is lying idle for years after those shifted to gas generation,” Samir said.

He said though the industry had an accumulated idle generation capacity of 400MW, not all units are in an operational condition. “A contribution of 200-250MW should not be taken as a small gesture in a situation where the country is faced with huge power shortage,” he added.