PESHAWAR: Generator prices rise as power crisis persists
By Zulfiqar Ali
PESHAWAR, June 24: The power crisis in Peshawar and other parts of the NWFP is forcing domestic consumers to instal generators in their homes.
“Like other domestic appliances, generator has become an essential requirement for consumers in this part of the world owing to the electricity crisis,” said Haji Shakirullah, a dealer of power generators in Peshawar.
Dealers said that demand for electricity generators had increased manifold because of increasing power shortage and loadshedding in Peshawar and other parts of the country. The increasing demand had served to jack up the prices of generators in the market.
Despite huge potential of hydropower generation, domestic consumers in the province are facing five to eight hours’ power breakdown. The situation is aggravating with each passing day. Official statistics show that
70 per cent of the total 4,000 megawatts is located in this province.
Similarly, the total installed capacity of hydropower stations in Pakistan is about 6,595 megawatts, out of which 3,767 megawatts is in the NWFP. “Loadshedding is the NWFP specific. There is no shortage of electricity in Punjab. One can see illumination of big trees and banks of canals in Lahore during loadshedding,” lamented a consumer.
Few years back only shopkeepers installed electricity generators during loadshedding. Now unprecedented loadshedding has forced consumers to install generators inside their houses for energising their electric appliances. Domestic consumers are buying one KV to two KV generators to meet their requirements, said a dealer in Peshawar Cantonment.
Dealers said that more than 100 containers loaded with electricity generators had recently arrived at the Karachi port. Chinese-made generators running through diesel and natural gas have captured the market, because of the low cost, they said. The federal government has already written off sales tax and income tax on electricity generators. They said it is the duty of the media to unearth who has exported the generator.
Shaukat Khan, a dealer, said that increasing demand had caused surge in prices of small power generators. For instance, he said, the cost of one KV generator had increased from Rs5,700 to Rs7,000 in the local market and people were purchasing it for domestic use. Similarly the price of 5 KV generators has increased from Rs100,000 to Rs40,000.
The Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) is facing a shortfall of 320 MW during peak hours against its total demand of 2260MW, said Shaukat Afzal, the company’s spokesman. He said that the company was facing huge losses due to non-payment of bill and power theft in rural areas of the province.
“We never claim that the Pesco system is very perfect. But domestic consumers’ demand has increased,” the spokesman said, adding that some 500,000 air conditioners and split units had been purchased from local market between July 2006 to May 2007, which put unprecedented load on the Pesco system.
Former Wapda chief engineer Sheryar Khan suggested installation of power units on tunnel-4 at the Tarbela power house to generate about 960MW electricity to cope with the growing power crises in the country. Presently, the tunnel is only being used for irrigation purpose.
“Wapda can easily generate 960MW with 13 paisas per unit cost,” Mr Sheryar said, adding that a feasibility report had been prepared during the Benazir Bhutto government. He said that the Pesco should also reduce its losses to increase its revenue.
