ISLAMABAD: Iran has stopped 80MW power supply to Pakistan, seriously affecting businesses and livelihood of millions of people in the entire Makran region, including Gwadar, Pasni, Turbat and Panjgur.

Pakistan is importing about 100MW from Iran under long-term contracts at about Rs11.57 per unit to meet electricity demand in the coastal region having no access to the national grid because of long distances and resultant commercial viability challenges.

The Ministry of Energy’s power division told the Senate Standing Committee on Power on Thursday that Iran was facing serious a heatwave and was unable to meet its domestic electricity demand as well as failing to fulfil its power export obligation to Pakistan.

Chairman of the committee Senator Fida Mohammad criticised Minister for Power Ali Zafar for misleading the Senate about the shortfalls in power supply, attributing this to payment problems. He said he had challenged the minister that the problem was not because of “non-payments from our side but due to local constraints on the Iranian side”.

50pc of agreed supply will be restored by 15th, Senate panel told

Senator Fida said he had also confirmed it from the ambassadors and the chief executive officer of the Quetta Electric Supply Company (Qesco) that there was no payment issue. He deplored that he had been told by some officials that the issue had been taken up with the caretaker government a few days ago which advised them to wait for the new government instead of addressing the problem.

He said the Iranian ambassador had assured that they would be able to restore 50 per cent of reduced supply by Aug 15-20.

On a query, an official said power cuts exceeded 20 hours a day at present and would hopefully come down to 12 hours in a few days.

In response to a question, joint secretary Zargham Eshaq Khan said Gwadar required about 70MW and was suffering along with many other coastal towns. He said a Chinese company working at Gwadar had promised to make available about 7.5MW from its generators but was demanding Rs5 million per day.

He said Gwadar was currently getting only 35MW. He said the 7.5MW supply would resolve some local problems at Gwadar, but the tariff demanded by the Chinese worked out to be about Rs30 per unit, compared to a reasonable rate of power import from Iran.

He said power was not supplied to the coastal region because of the absence of network of the national grid.

Senator Molvi Faiz Mohammad said that Pakistan had not made its own arrangement for the region and wondered how long the country would have to rely on outsiders.

The Qesco CEO said that PC-I of Rs14 billion for a transmission line project for Gwadar had been submitted to the Executive Committee of the National Executive Council (Ecnec) and the Senate committee should use its good offices for its early approval so that a long-term solution could be made.

Senators said Gwadar faced a host of challenges, including power supply, water shortage, terrorism and agricultural constraints, but the recent power problem had further added to the problems of the people. In some cases, electricity poles and meters had drowned in the sea due to floods, but consumers were not being given electricity due to huge receivables that were beyond their capacity.

Mr Eshaq reported that a 220km line of 132kv and 727km of 230kv were awaiting Ecnec approval. He told the committee that there was a strong case for inserting a new clause in the power import agreement from Iran to ensure it could compensate from other sources or means in case of power supply shortfall. He proposed that this should be done immediately and before Iran resumed full supply to Pakistan as promised between Aug 15 and 20.

The Hyderabad Electric Supply Company CEO told the committee that his company’s arrears had accumulated to Rs83bn since it was created in 2010 and the amount was beyond the paying capacity of consumers. He said he had requested deployment of Rangers in the interior of Sindh along with some incentives to improve recoveries, adding that he had filed 1,100 applications for registration of FIRs against power theft.

He said his company’s network was capable of drawing 1,125MW from the national grid but because of high loss and low recoveries, it was not availing its full quota.

The Qesco CEO reported that 75pc of his company’s consumers were tube-wells from where there was no recovery at all, while recoveries from the remaining 25pc involving domestic, commercial and industrial consumers stood at about 75pc, 85pc and 98pc, respectively.

Published in Dawn, August 3rd, 2018