Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Thursday chaired a high-level meeting to review the unprecedented power demand in the country as a result of high economic growth and increased consumption in all sectors of the economy.
He took several decisions to reduce the gap between the demand and supply of power in the country. The prime minister approved Nepra's decision to allow any captive power plant (having surplus power) up to 50MW generation capacity to sell power to buyers at mutually agreed rates.
He also decided that approximately 200-250MW would be added to the National Transmission System. Shaukat Aziz asked for immediate availability of 21MMCFD of gas for the existing power plants of KESC enabling additional generation of 100MW of electricity.
He directed Wapda to lease 100MW power plants on fast track basis and to explore further leasing capacity. The prime minister further directed to strictly implement National Power Conversation Policy to enable availability of additional 600MW.
Shaukat Aziz allowed Wapda to replace its old power plants installed at Guddu with the state-of-the-art power plants, which would increase power generation up to 300MW in future.
Earlier, the Wapda Chairman informed the prime minister that the demand of electricity had increased by 15 to 20 percent as compared to last year and the initial projections for the years were estimated at 7.5 percent to 8 percent. The minister for water and power apprised the prime minister that the demand and supply situation would improve due to increased inflow of water in dams thus resulting in increased hydel power generation by 500MW to 600MW within the next 10 days.
Two new power plants have been added to the Wapda's generation and distribution system of which the first plant with a capacity of 130MW has been made operational while the other plant with capacity of 136MW will be operational by the end of this month.
As regard the situation in Karachi, the Prime Minister was informed that KESC was establishing a power plant with the generation capacity of 220MW in Karachi to augment the power resources. The ground breaking is planned within this week for which the machinery has started arriving in Karachi.
It was also decided in the meeting that the Minister for Water and Power would monitor the demand and supply situation of power on a daily basis and keep the prime minister and other stakeholders informed about it.
The meeting also reviewed the ongoing Independent Power Producers in public and private sectors to meet the growing power demand. The prime minister directed that the plants must meet the target date of commissioning to add power supply to the system. He said any delay was likely to aggravate the situation and would not be tolerated.
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