PESHAWAR: The Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited has rejected the consumers’ complaints about gas loadshedding in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and said the province was given the same volume of natural gas, which it produced.

SNGPL general manager Saqib Arbab told reporters at his office on Tuesday that KP’s gas production was around 400 million cubic feet per day and the province was supplied the same volume of gas in the winter season, which was enough for around 675,000 domestic, 6,400 commercial, 3,000 special domestic and 780 industrial consumers.

He said the use of compressors by certain consumers put extra load on the gas distribution system for which it was not designed and thus, depleting gas available for sale to all consumers.

The official said most consumers used substandard equipment for cooking food and heating water and that their maintenance was not carried out properly and therefore, those equipment needed extra high gas pressure for normal operation.

He said the SNGPL consumers should stick to their contractual gas load by restricting the use of gas to cooking and water heating purposes.

“This will ensure ample gas supply to all consumers. The gas-run generators and gas compressors should be discouraged by neighbourhood councils and town committees through the communication to the communities in meetings and congregations,” he said.

Mr. Arbab said the gas utility encouraged the use of energy conservation devices such as conical baffles, water heater timer devices and solar water heaters.

“The amount is recovered from consumers in monthly installments. The use of room heater run on gas should be discouraged as it’s not only a waste of expensive resource but also a health and safety hazard,” he said.

The official said after the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, the SNGPL was bound to supply gas to the province where it was produced. “There is no concept of gas loadshedding in the gas distribution principles. All industrial consumers of the province are being given uninterrupted gas,” he said.

Mr. Arbab blamed the low gas pressure reported in certain areas of the province on the use of inefficient gas-fired electric generators, which, he said, unduly burdened the gas pipeline network.

“If each and every household restrains itself to the use of gas to cooking and water heating as agreed to by consumers in the contract, no one in province will ever face low gas pressure,” he said.

The official said the use of substandard quality room heaters by consumers, whose premises were located near the SNGPL ‘feeder mains’, had extremely strained the pipeline network and that the company had to face low gas pressure at tailends and lengthy streets.

He claimed that the SNGPL was complying with the government’s socio economic reforms agenda by supply gas pipeline network to far flung areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa like, Dir, DI Khan, Bannu and other remote areas.

“We have laid almost 1,000 kilometers of gas pipelines in the last three years in line with the government’s directives. We’ve taken certain steps to make more gas available for sale for all consumers and a few projects are in the pipeline,” he said. Ends

Published in Dawn, January 18th, 2017