Loadshedding: growing violent protests a cause of worry for Pepco

Growing violent protests against load shedding have become a cause of worry for Pakistan Electric Power Company (Pepco) officials, and deliberations are underway with provincial governments to ensure safety measures for Pepco installations and staff on ground.
Violent protests have erupted fast across the country, as riots have broken out in different cities including Karachi, Peshawar, Rawalpindi, Jhelum, Sukkur, Faisalabad, Hangu, Kolhapur, Lahore and Faisalabad. This spree of violent protests has resulted in damage to Wapda/Pepco installations besides injury to the protesters at the hand of police. However, the Mianwali protest resulted in killing of two protesters besides large-scale damage to public properties. In a detailed discussion with Business Recorder, Pepco officials said that no thorough assessment has so far been made on the magnitude of destruction as a result of violent protests. The Director General of Pepco, Ejaz Rafique Qureshi, said no such assessment has been carried out by the Pepco, and assured of taking it up with authorities from different discos in his meeting on Monday.
However, the Managing Director of Pepco Rasool Khan Mehsood said some meetings have held with provincial governments on the subject to deal with the situation. According to him, the most important factor in the whole process is to educate people on efficient utilisation of electricity. Mehsud said the rampant use of split air conditioners has created dent in the generation capacity of the system. Both officials avoided to comment on political motives behind the violent protests in the country. DG Pepco Qureshi said a total of 3550 mw is being consumed by the home appliances in the country on the presumption that the split air conditioners are electricity-friendly. According to him, the electricity requirement has shot up to 18000 mw plus, this year against 15000 mw plus last year.
He said generation issues due to short supply of fuel were affecting the performance of power supply companies. He said the Pepco authorities were holding meetings regularly with government to ensure smooth supply to power generation units before Ramazan.
There are more than 20 million power consumers in the country, out of which 17 million are domestic consumers. He said the company has provided 650,000 new connections. On generation front, he added that there is over 3000 mw increase in installed capacity since 2008 whereas some 1200 mw was inducted to the system during last one year.
According to him, outstanding arrears of SNGPL were Rs 35 billion last year against Rs 22 billion this year. Similarly, the outstanding arrears of PSO were Rs 132 billion last year against Rs 139 billion this year. However, in the same breath he added that the government departments and private entities owe Pepco arrears worth Rs 297 billion till date.
Similarly, he said, the KESC was drawing 750 mw daily from the system against an agreement of 650 mw per day. Earlier there was an agreement for supply of 350 mw per day with the KESC, he added. He said 39458 FIRs have been registered against power theft in last 11 months.