April 04, 2008	Friday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 26, 1429

KARACHI, April 3: Amid continuing power outages, diminishing generation and soaring line losses of the Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC), Senate Committee on Water and Power met the chief executive officer of the utility to gather information on the ongoing power crisis in the city.

Led by Senator Mir Wali Mahmend Badeni the committee visited the KESC’s head office on Thursday.

The meeting was attended by senior KESC, government of Pakistan and Sindh government officials.

Surprisingly, according to an official statement, leader of the Senate Committee’s team “appreciated the efforts being made by the KESC”, but there was no reference to the problems being faced by the Karachiites on a daily basis due to power outages and unattended so-called faults in the utility’s network and generation units.

Either the senators did not bother to ask the KESC’s CEO as to why the KESC consumers were being burdened with higher tariff when the service was declining everyday, or the official statement deliberately ignored the harsh realities.

Although the officials did mention about the KESC’s plan to put up a 220-megawatt-plant, it did not say anything about the reasons for the delay in its commissioning and also as to why it had taken so long for the utility to conclude a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for setting up a 560-megawatt-power plant.

The committee members also seemed to be ignorant about the need for the KESC to find alternative sources of energy, such as coal-based power plants and tapping solar and wind energy to deal with the lingering issue.

However, they were concerned about the development schemes that fell within the ambit of the elected representatives’ development scheme because the official statement did say that the committee members reviewed the MNA’s development schemes in the meeting.

They were informed that under the Khushhal Pakistan Programme, funds had been released for 18 out of the total 46 schemes and completed by the KESC.

They were informed that estimates for 261 schemes under the village electrification programme had been released regarding which the Sindh government’s views were presented.

In this regard, a second meeting between the provincial government and the KESC will be held on April 15 to discuss a reduction in the estimates of these schemes.

In the meeting, to which access was allowed only to the official media, KESC Chief Executive Syed Mohammed Amjad presented a comparative statement of power supply.

He informed the committee that the KESC was installing 220-megawatt-power plant from its own resources, while an agreement for setting up a 560MW power plant would soon be concluded.

The CEO of the power utility focused mainly on the deceptive power supply plan up to 2013 when the utility plans to substantially reduce its dependence on the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda).

According to official sources, Senator Wali Mehmend Badeni supported the idea of enforcing “power holiday” on various days.

He urged the relevant officials of the Pakistan Electric Power Company (Pepco) and the KESC to solve the persistent problem.