Indus River System Authority (IRSA) has massively reduced water releases from Tarbela and Mangla reservoirs due to forthcoming annual canal closure to be commenced from December 26 for one month. According to IRSA Spokesperson Rana Khalid, Tarbela releases have been reduced to 20,000 cusecs from 30,000 cusecs of water with immediate effect. It will be further reduced to 12,000 cusecs from December 24.
He further stated that releases from Mangla would be reduced to 10,000 cusecs from 30,000 cusecs from December 25, 2016. With substantial reduction in releases of water from both reservoirs, hydel electricity generation would massively be reduced for one month and the government will have to rely on thermal generation.
Official sources told Business Recorder that the Ministry of Water and Power has sufficient stocks of furnace oil in addition to RLNG aimed at running all thermal power plants at maximum capacity so that people are supplied with electricity. "Presently there is no load shedding in those areas where recovery is 90 percent as electricity availability is linked to recovery. However, with massive reduction in hydel generation, load shedding duration would increase to some extent till end of January," the sources added.
However, Pakistan State Oil (PSO) which supplies furnace oil and RLNG to the power sector is again on the verge of default due to continuous pile-up of receivables against power sector which have reached Rs 230 billion in addition to Rs 7 billion of SNGPL against supply of RLNG as of December 1, 2016. The PSO has written a number of letters to the top brass of Ministry of Petroleum as well as Ministry of Water and Power, besides having meetings for payment of receivables, but the commitments made have not been honoured so far.