KARACHI: An investment plan of approximately Rs3.7 billion has been finalised for the captive requirements of industrial zones in the city, K-Electric (KE) said on Saturday.

The overall load-requirement and enhancement of captive power plants (CPPs) that will be connected to the grid is around 747 MW, spread across 743 customers, the statement said, citing surveys conducted by the utility. “More than 500 customers have already been contacted by the power utility for load requirements amounting to around 300MW. Permission for load-requirement or load-enhancement survey is awaited from around 100 customers,” the statement added.

Working on a priority basis, more than 136 applications out of 743 are already under process for new connection or load enhancement, KE said. Currently, 120 applications are for new connection or load enhancement for around 130MW while 16 applications for a total load of 17MW have already been energised, the utility added.

The power utility said that it has always prioritised its industrial customers and continues to do so following the recent decision of the Cabinet Committee on Energy (CCoE) to discontinue gas supply to CPPs of non-export related industries, adding that it has been working round the clock to ensure that there is minimal disruption to industrial activities.

On Jan 21, 2021, CCoE banned fresh gas connections and disconnect supplies for CPPs to existing industrial consumers in a bid to enhance power consumption from the national grid facing a capacity trap. The meeting took the decision based on the fact that cheaper domestic gas supplies were declining and their consumption in inefficient CPPs of industrial consumers was a big national loss. The CCoE noted that surplus power generation capacity had become another challenge and a significant part could be absorbed in these industrial units at competitive rates and reliable supplies.

The KE statement added that delegations led by the power utility’s Chief Distribution Officer Amer Zia have already visited several industry associations. In this regard, Federal B Area Association of Trade & Industry, Bin Qasim Association of Trade & Industry, North Karachi Association of Trade & Industry, Korangi Association of Trade & Industry and the Site Superhighway Association of Trade Industry were reached out.

Multiple visits of all other leading industry associations as well as engagements with industrial representatives have been carried out by the power utility’s Network Planning and its Distribution teams. All these visits have been carried out in the last three weeks as part of KE’s commitment to expedite the shift of captive customers to the grid.

Helpdesks have been set up at all the above mentioned trade associations as well as at Site Association of Industry and the Landhi Association of Trade & Industry to facilitate industrial customers with regards to their new connections requests and load enhancement.

Published in Dawn, March 14th, 2021