ISLAMABAD - The country’s power sector requires Rs 100 billion immediately to avert power crisis, as the power producers have made it clear that they don’t have money to buy oil and repair the generation plants.
Besides making payment to power producers to restart generation from closed power plants, the government is mulling to purchase two LNG cargoes from the spot market, official source told The Nation.
It has been proposed to purchase two spot LNG cargos to restore the power supply from the RLNG based power plants, the source said. It is estimated that the purchase of two LNG cargoes from the spot market would require Rs40b, the source said. The Ministry of Energy has requested the Finance Division for the provision of funds for the spot LNG purchases, source said.
From the last four months, four LNG based power plants with the capacity of 1195MW are under forced outages. The power plants that are closed due to unavailability of RLNG include Rousch 410MW, Nandipur 525MW, FKPCL 140MW and GTPS Faisalabad 120MW.
The RLNG supply to these power plants was stopped in December 2021 mainly due to non-availability of RLNG. The PTI stopped buying spot LNG cargoes due to high international prices and the contracted LNG was not enough to cater for the supply of all the power plants.
In a briefing on Thursday, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif was informed that 27 power plants with the installed capacity of 7140MW are under forced outages due to fuel shortages or technical faults.
Shahbaz Sharif had directed the Power Division to sit down with Khaqan Abbasi, Musadiq Malik and Finance Division to finalise the plan for resolving the issue of unscheduled loadshedding in the country immediately.
Out of total 27 closed power plants, 9 power plants with the capacity of 3535MW are under forced outages due to unavailability of fuel, while 18 power plants are under forced outages due to technical faults.
The source said that supply from four closed power plants with the capacity of around 1000 MW has been resumed on Friday. The power plants that have restarted generation include Engro Thar-1 of 301MW, Pakgen 350MW and TPS Guddu units 9, 10 and 11 with the capacity of 310MW. The source said that power sector requires Rs 100b immediately to avert the power crises in the country.
The source said that power sector has receivables of 900b against various government entities and KE. The receivables from KE are Rs 387b, Balochistan tube wells Rs 324b, federal and provincial governments Rs 100b and AJK Rs 95b, the source added.
Meanwhile, NEPRA, in a hearing, expressed serious concerns over power outages due to unavailability of oil and technical faults. The regulator had summoned the heads of all the closed power plants to discuss ongoing loadshedding issue at NEPRA’s headquarters. The representatives of NPCC and CPPA also attended the hearing.
During hearing, the regulator questioned why these power plants are not available when the country is in dire need of electricity?
The chiefs of the power generation plants, that are going forced outages due fuel unavailability or technical faults, lodged complaints against CPPAG over non-availability of funds.
“We don’t have money to buy oil and repair the generation plants,” they said and added that both the problems can be overcome if CPPAG make timely payments”.
NEPRA directed CPPAG to expedite disbursement of funds to power plants. The regulator also directed the NPCC to review its planning according to the severity of the weather. The authority has constituted a committee comprising NEPRA, NPCC and the private sector to assist the NPCC in better planning on a daily basis. In addition, the authority directed NPCC to immediately run the Guddu power plant on open cycle which will add 260 MW to the system.
Besides making payment to power producers to restart generation from closed power plants, the government is mulling to purchase two LNG cargoes from the spot market, official source told The Nation.
It has been proposed to purchase two spot LNG cargos to restore the power supply from the RLNG based power plants, the source said. It is estimated that the purchase of two LNG cargoes from the spot market would require Rs40b, the source said. The Ministry of Energy has requested the Finance Division for the provision of funds for the spot LNG purchases, source said.
From the last four months, four LNG based power plants with the capacity of 1195MW are under forced outages. The power plants that are closed due to unavailability of RLNG include Rousch 410MW, Nandipur 525MW, FKPCL 140MW and GTPS Faisalabad 120MW.
The RLNG supply to these power plants was stopped in December 2021 mainly due to non-availability of RLNG. The PTI stopped buying spot LNG cargoes due to high international prices and the contracted LNG was not enough to cater for the supply of all the power plants.
In a briefing on Thursday, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif was informed that 27 power plants with the installed capacity of 7140MW are under forced outages due to fuel shortages or technical faults.
Shahbaz Sharif had directed the Power Division to sit down with Khaqan Abbasi, Musadiq Malik and Finance Division to finalise the plan for resolving the issue of unscheduled loadshedding in the country immediately.
Out of total 27 closed power plants, 9 power plants with the capacity of 3535MW are under forced outages due to unavailability of fuel, while 18 power plants are under forced outages due to technical faults.
The source said that supply from four closed power plants with the capacity of around 1000 MW has been resumed on Friday. The power plants that have restarted generation include Engro Thar-1 of 301MW, Pakgen 350MW and TPS Guddu units 9, 10 and 11 with the capacity of 310MW. The source said that power sector requires Rs 100b immediately to avert the power crises in the country.
The source said that power sector has receivables of 900b against various government entities and KE. The receivables from KE are Rs 387b, Balochistan tube wells Rs 324b, federal and provincial governments Rs 100b and AJK Rs 95b, the source added.
Meanwhile, NEPRA, in a hearing, expressed serious concerns over power outages due to unavailability of oil and technical faults. The regulator had summoned the heads of all the closed power plants to discuss ongoing loadshedding issue at NEPRA’s headquarters. The representatives of NPCC and CPPA also attended the hearing.
During hearing, the regulator questioned why these power plants are not available when the country is in dire need of electricity?
The chiefs of the power generation plants, that are going forced outages due fuel unavailability or technical faults, lodged complaints against CPPAG over non-availability of funds.
“We don’t have money to buy oil and repair the generation plants,” they said and added that both the problems can be overcome if CPPAG make timely payments”.
NEPRA directed CPPAG to expedite disbursement of funds to power plants. The regulator also directed the NPCC to review its planning according to the severity of the weather. The authority has constituted a committee comprising NEPRA, NPCC and the private sector to assist the NPCC in better planning on a daily basis. In addition, the authority directed NPCC to immediately run the Guddu power plant on open cycle which will add 260 MW to the system.
