Karachi Electric Supply Company has alerted consumers about a huge increase in loadshedding hours up to 12 hours a day within the next 24 hours due to insufficient fuel supply, and demanded of the government to either provide the approved quota of 276 MMCFD of natural gas, or, arrange 1700 tons of furnace oil at gas price to the utility to avert the impending power crisis.
KESC said that the government had agreed in meetings in the last week of July at Governor's House upon a mechanism of providing at least 200 MMCFD of natural gas during Ramazan in order to maintain normal load shedding plan of three to four-and-a-half hours a day across residential and commercial customers, exemption at Sehri and Iftar time and exemption of all industrial and strategic feeders.
KESC had also proposed in the said meetings to continue with the same mechanism in order to maintain normal load shedding plan after Eid-ul-Fitr to meet the summer power needs of the Karachi population which might touch 2500MWs. It had demanded that in case the total quota of 276 MMCFD could not be supplied, then a minimum of 200 MMCFD gas be supplied and 1700 tons of furnace oil be provided at gas price to pre-empt increased load shedding and a significant increase in the consumer end tariff.
In addition, KESC and the connected IPPs would be purchasing a total of 2000 tons of furnace oil per day, worth over Rs 14 crores every day. However, during the past week, neither the gas supply increased, nor had furnace oil been provided on gas price. Yet, KESC had not enhanced load shedding hours so far in the interest of 20 million population of the metropolis. This, however, cannot be sustained if government does not fulfil its obligations and an increase in load shedding across all residential, commercial and industrial customers is inevitable.
While demanding the supply of the approved 276 MMCFD of natural gas quota for power generation, KESC demanded positive response from the government towards the power needs of the Karachi population, otherwise KESC would be forced to enhance load shedding hours from Tuesday. KESC said that the complete approved quota of 276 MMCFD had never been provided to the utility on regular basis, otherwise the utility would never had demanded any concession in the price of furnace oil. On the contrary, especially during the past about two years, gas supply had been unstable and going down drastically; at times it had dropped to the lowest of 50 MMCFD with no relief in terms of furnace oil supply at gas prices. Government needs to adopt a more responsible approach towards the power needs of the biggest city of the country, which is also the economic hub and a major source of government revenues, KESC further emphasised.
Referring to KESC's efforts to maintain low consumer end tariff, the utility said that it had been making all out efforts to keep the per unit price affordable to the common power consumers of Karachi. On the other hand, according to the payment plan agreed at the Governor House meetings, KESC had so far paid a total of Rs 3.4 billion to SSGC for purchase of gas, and Rs 5.535 billion to PSO of which Rs 1.4 billion belonged to past purchases while the remaining amount belonged to current buying. This reflected the fact that KESC did not owe any outstanding amount to both the fuel supplying organisations under the payment plan. While KESC has delivered on its promises, it expects the government to fulfil its commitments and ensure supply of right fuel mix to KESC keeping the larger public interest in mind.
Alerting the consumers over the extra use of furnace oil, KESC stated that this fuel was more than three times costlier than gas and any further increase in its use could shoot up the power tariff to unaffordable levels. KESC had also been purchasing furnace oil at the market rate of approximately Rs 72,000 per ton as against the reduced price of the oil at price of gas at around Rs 26,000 per ton. That fuel arrangement had helped the utility to keep the power tariff low and affordable to the consumers
During the month of Ramazan up to Eid, KESC purchased a total of 52,000 tons of furnace oil at the price of gas under the agreed mechanism, but had also bought an additional 47,000 tons of furnace oil at market price according to its generation needs. For technical reasons, KESC has always preferred full supply of 276 MMCFD gas instead of asking for supply of furnace oil at gas price. However, it has been accommodating government's decision to reduce gas supply and replace it with furnace oil at gas price.KESC said that the government needed to take immediate steps to pre-empt the imminent power supply issue which would plunge the whole city into a serious power crisis leading to chaos due to unilateral and unjustified decision of SSGC as it had deviated from supplying the approved quota of 276 MMCFD to the power utility.
Supply of uninterrupted power to Karachi industries and a controlled load shedding regime for residential and commercial segments is critical for industrial growth, commercial activity and peace in the city, KESC concluded.-PR
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