KARACHI: The Employers’ Federation of Pakistan (EFP), had earlier expressed dissatisfaction with the decision of the government to withdraw gas connections to Captive Power Plants (CPPs) of existing industries.

“Captive Power Plant” means industrial undertakings or other businesses carrying out the activity of power production for self-consumption, who intend to sell the power, surplus to their requirement, to a Distribution Company or bulk-power consumer.” – 1999 Nepra Licensing Regulations.

To clarify, as per above, the EFP welcomes the government’s move to cut the gas supplies to those CPPs that are connected to the national grid and are either idle or inefficient or both and whose dutiful fulfillment of power agreement obligation with the Government is questionable.

The EFP has requested the government to give CPPs of existing industries ample time to switch from gas to electricity and be given two options for power generation: through imported Re-gasified Liquefied Natural Gas (RLNG) or domestically produced furnace oil.

Moreover, to create a transparent system of capacity payments, all power producers should be forensically audited and it is only after that should they be provided any kind of subsidies.

The EFP is in essence only against the abrupt closure of gas for also those industries that are running CPPs for their own use and have no buy-back agreements with the government.—PR

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021