March 11, 2008	Tuesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 2, 1429

KARACHI, March 10: Karachiites endured yet another day of power cuts as the Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) on Monday resorted to at least six hours of load-shedding in three different phases.

The utility cited a shortfall of about 400 megawatts as the reason for the power cuts while the available supply of electricity from the KESC’s own and imported sources remained at around 1,600 megawatts.

According to the engineers at the Load Dispatch Centre, the power supply situation became precarious when Unit-4 of the Bin Qasim power plant, generating 185 megawatts, “went out of production” on Sunday night. This unit is not expected to become functional before March 14. It is worth noting that Bin Qasim plant’s Unit-1 was already under renovation and would not be back in service before April 10.

It is a matter of concern that the KESC’s generation capacity is dwindling day by day and the power utility is not taking sufficient measures to check the imbalance between its power supply and the increasing power demand of the metropolis. The only step taken by the utility so far is the installation of new combined cycle plants ie a 220-megawatt combined cycle project on the premises of the existing Korangi Thermal Power Station and another 560-megawatt project at the Bin Qasim Thermal Power Station.

According to sources in the KESC, the utility expects the power demand of the city to reach 3,459 megawatts by 2010, 4,081 megawatts by 2012 and around 4,929MW by the year 2015.

They were of the view that the situation had aggravated due to the fact that the KESC was not allowed to set up new generation plants and was obliged to purchase either costly electricity from independent power producers (IPPS) or from the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda).

It was mainly due to this reason that the power utility was evading a decision to purchase power from the IPPs like 150MW Fauji Korangi Power Project and 150MW Western Electric Power Project.

However, the earlier dithering has now been reviewed in view of the KESC’s dwindling power generation capacity and the rising demand. But the situation is not expected to improve unless the KESC expands its generation capacity, which is not on the cards.

According to details, the utility has no plans regarding a sizable addition to its existing power generation capacity up to the year 2014. The net generation available to the KESC, from its own sources and from IPPs, Kanupp, Pasmic etc, minus 300 megawatts from Wapda and 400 megawatts imported from Wapda, was projected at 2,111 megawatts in 2007.

The same was projected to be 2,455MW this year while the figure was expected to remain static at 2,705 from 2009 to 2014. However, in 2015 an increase of around 1,000 megawatts is expected when Kanupp-II is likely to be commissioned.

Sources in the KESC disclosed that these ‘facts’ were not reliable as these calculations were basically aimed at projecting the KESC as a profit-earning enterprise. They pointed out that the peak demand this year would be 2,700 megawatts but the generation from all sources was not expected to touch 2,200MW.

Insiders say that the new management must review its demand and supply situation after taking into account major breakdowns since last winter and the rising cost of fuel, including gas and oil.

Meanwhile, as the dispute over unsettled bills between the KESC and the Pakistan Electric Power Company (Pepco) remain a bone of contention, Wapda has restricted its supply to the utility to 200 megawatts and that also too as a result of the federal government’s intervention.

At this point, a question arises as to why the owners of the privatised utility were allowed to accumulate dues of over Rs38 billion when the organisation was itself sold for about Rs20 billion. Insiders said that the Pepco’s demand was inflated as it was charging Rs9 per unit from the KESC, which was on a much higher side although Wapda was supplying both hydel and thermal power to the KESC.