Campaign on energy conservation: Power Division seeks Rs100m supplementary grant
- During ongoing summer season, country’s power system is facing shortfall of 6000 to 7000 MW
ISLAMABAD: Power Division has reportedly sought Rs100 million as supplementary grant for public awareness campaign about conservation of energy, well informed sources told Business Recorder.
Sharing the background of this proposal, the sources said, during the ongoing summer season, country’s power system is facing a shortfall of power supply in the range of 6000 to 7000 MW, primarily due to less water availability in the reservoirs and abnormal increase in international oil prices having direct impact on supply of oil, RLNG and coal.
The sources said that because of these limiting factors, hydel generation is currently restricted to about 5500 MW whereas supply chains of RLNG and coal have been disrupted thus making it impossible to run the respective gas based and coal-based plants on full capacity.
Power Division has claimed that to cope with the negative impacts of this shortfall, the Division is working on two-pronged strategy both on supply side and on demand side. On supply side, Power Division and other ministries are trying to ensure and increase fuel supplies for enhanced generation.
On the demand side, the focus is on conservation of power to cut wasteful excess usage. Accordingly, there is need to educate general public about this requirement of conservation through a well thought out campaign. In this regard, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif while chairing a meeting on load management on July 1, 2022 instructed to launch an effective media campaign.
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Power Division is accordingly working with Ministry of Information and Broadcasting on development of an awareness campaign to be run on electronic and print media.
The sources maintained that as per current budgetary allocation of Power Division (demand number 36) for FY 2022-23, a total of Rs500,000 have been allocated under the head “Advertising and Publicity – 03907” which is not sufficient to meet any expenses on mass awareness campaign. As per initial estimate an amount of Rs100 million shall be required to run the campaign.
The sources further stated that Power Division has sought an amount of Rs100 million as supplementary grant in its favour under the relevant head.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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