LAHORE, Dec 31: Wapda chairman Zulifqar Ali Khan said on Tuesday that there would be no power loadshedding during the current winter despite the declining water level in rivers.
“We have enough power generation at Wapda thermal power plants and independent power producers (IPPs) to meet the need of consumers,” he told a press conference on Tuesday.
Referring to the decrease in the quantity of gas being provided by the distribution companies —- SNGPL and SSGC, he said, presently, Wapda power plants in the Punjab located at Multan, Faisalabad and Muzaffargarh were not getting gas supplies despite the ministry of petroleum and natural resources’ commitment in this regard.
“These companies are engaged in the repair of their distribution infrastructure nowadays; they should have completed it by Oct 31,” he said.
He regretted that SNGPL and SSGC had not even fulfilled Wapda’s demand in summer, not to speak of winter.
The Wapda chairman said the supply of natural gas to Wapda thermal power stations declined to the mark of 368 million million cubic feet per day (MMCFD) in 2002 against 427 MMCFD in 2000.
“This is quite surprising that the gas companies decreased the supply after the ministry’s commitment to increase,” he wondered.
Electricity from Iran: Wapda will be able to extend its transmission infrastructure up to the Iranian border by Jan 15 under the second phase of power imports from Iran to feed the areas of Mekran in Balochistan
“Hopefully, we will also complete the transmission line between Pasni and Gwadar by that time,” Wapda chairman Zulfiqar Ali Khan told a press conference here on Tuesday.
He said that the capacity of grid stations in these coastal areas was also being upgraded to 132kv from the previous level of 33-66kv.
He said the supply of electricity had been commissioned in Taftan and Mashkhail under the first phase of import of the Iranian power project.
He said the tariff of the Iranian power was three cents per kwh, quite economical as compared to that of independent power producers.
Referring to the performance of Wapda during five months of the fiscal year 2002-3, he said that the authority had mopped up a revenue of Rs89.3 billion by Nov 30 last while the power generation in this period stood at 28068 million kilo-watt- hour (kwh).
Mr Khan said that Wapda had sustained 24.2 per cent power losses during its distribution to 12.9 million consumers. He said it had given 1298 agricultural tubewell connections during the last five months of the current fiscal year.
He said some 72,332 villages of the country were electrified during the first five months of year 2002-3 against 70,658 in the previous year.
Talking about the incentives to customers, he said that the cost of new domestic connections had been reduced from Rs3,900 to 3,500. He also referred to the incentives for industries especially steel furnaces in this regard.
He said the settlement with 18 IPPs, including two hydro-power projects, had helped Wapda save an amount of $6.266 billion. He said the major heads of Wapda expenditure were payments to IPPs, director debt service and hydel profit to the NWFP which mainly contributed towards increasing the cost of power.
The Wapda chairman said that the ground-breaking ceremony of the hydropower projects at Allai Khwar, Duber Khwar and Khan Khwar would be held next month. These projects were being carried out under Abu Dhabi fund.
He also hinted at the possibility of more progress in the Neelum-Jhelum Hydropower Project in a couple of months.—APP