Prime Minister directs ministry to avoid unplanned loadshedding

The Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has directed the Ministry of Water and Power to prepare various load management scenarios and energy conservation plan by May 1. He gave these instructions while chairing a high level meeting here on Tuesday convened to review the current power situation and hue and cry of the people throughout the country.
Prime Minister was briefed about the current availability of plants, demand and supply position as well as the trends for next few weeks. The officials of Ministry of Water and Power and Wapda explained the main reason of shortage is that demand for power is increasing rapidly due to phenomenal growth of economy, increased use of air-conditioners and electric appliances, demand of tube wells and aggressive village electrification.
Both the Ministry and Wapda were also of the view that this year the summer had started earlier and the temperature were higher than last year. On the supply side, the situation has aggravated due to forced outages of large number of Wapda pants.
Shaukat directed that in order to minimise inconvenience to people, Wapda should expedite repair and maintenance of plant and avoid forced outages. "Wapda should also avoid ad hoc load shedding instead, proper and systematic supply and demand assessment should be carried out and non-availability of plants should be improved," he said.
He stated that correct and realistic position of power demand and supply should be placed before public and a load management strategy should be announced up front and there should be no unplanned load management.
Minister for Water and Power, Liaquat Ali Jatoi is convening meetings with IPPs, Discos and Gencos in this regard to maximise their power generation and to minimise the consumers suffering during summer season.
Secretary Water and Power, Ashfaq Mahmood, Dr Salman Shah, Adviser to PM on Finance, Tanwir Ali Aga, Secretary Finance, Chairman Nepra, Chairman Wapda and Member (Power) Wapda also attended the meeting.