ISLAMABAD: Amid anticipated higher electricity shortfalls later this month owing to canal closures, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday directed that expensive furnace oil based power plants be phased out with alternative fuels.

He was presiding over a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Energy, which concluded prematurely because of Peshawar tragedy. It was decided to convene a meeting again on Thursday to finalise the implementation strategy for load management.

Informed sources said that the Indus River System Authority (Irsa), in consultation with provincial governments had put in place canal closure plan for annual maintenance beginning Dec 25 and continuing up to Jan 31 across the country.

Under the plan, canals originating from Kotri barrage would be kept closed from Dec 25 and Jan 10 while Sukkur would be closed between Jan 6 and 20.

Chashma Right Bank Canal would be closed between Jan 1 and 31 while Taunsa canal would not be provided irrigation water between Jan 1 and 15. Tarimu and Thal canals would be closed with effect from Jan 11 and 13, respectively.

As a consequence, the currently available peak hydropower generation of about 4,500MW would tumble down to about 1,200-1,300MW, creating an additional electricity shortfall of about 3,000MW. To cope with this, the government would have to bring into production some of the expensive power plants that would need to be run on furnace oil.

They said the Ministry of Water and Power was also campaigning for diversion of some natural gas from industrial sector during this lean period to run Wapda’s generation plants on gas instead of furnace oil.

The sources said the load-shedding period was anticipated to be increased from existing six hours per day to about eight hours in big cities and 10 hours in rural areas.

The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet is also expected to be convened within this week to prioritise allocation of proposed imported LNG to convert about 2,500MW of dual-fired plants in the public sector and the IPPs.

The ECC is also expected to consider bidding results for setting up small rental power stations at the gasfields where small quantities and low quality gas transportation is deemed unviable.

The prime minister informed the participants — mostly ministers and secretaries of finance, planning water and power and petroleum and natural resources — that his top priority would be hydropower projects, followed by Thar coal, imported coal, Liquefied Natural Gas and furnace oil in that order and directed that furnace oil should be on the phase out priority.

The meeting was informed that contained power generation amid bearable hours of load-shedding and improved generation mix, coupled with lower furnace oil prices, had helped save Rs27bn during November.

Published in Dawn, December 17th, 2014