Businesses in Karachi, Punjab should be closed down early: Asif

Says daylight must be used for trade activities as it will help reduce loadshedding; markets are not kept open past evening world over; sources say industrial sector may face eight-hour power outages

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Water and Power Khawaja Muhammad Asif said on Tuesday that markets the world over did not remain open till late at night and likewise businesses in Karachi and Punjab should be closed with the approach of evening to reduce loadshedding. He said an early closure of markets, especially in Karachi and Punjab, could help save 1,500MW.

In a statement here on Tuesday, he said that daylight must be used for business.“Around the world, markets are not typically kept open past evening,” he added.

He said that early closure of markets would not only help reduce the power tariff but also 1,500MW electricity would be available. Asif said that a megawatt saved was far better than a megawatt generated. He also asked the provincial governments and traders to cooperate in this regard. –APP

Khalid Mustafa adds: The Nawaz government has decided to expose the industrial sector to 6-8 hours of loadshedding in the month of Ramazan, which will start on June 7 to provide uninterrupted electricity supply to the masses during Iftar, Taraveeh and Sehri. The three months of June, July and August will be The three months of June, July and August will be challenging ones for the government in terms of load management as the deadliest spate of heat wave is strongly predicted to continue to hit the country in the said months.

In addition, the Ministry of Water and Power has asked the provincial governments to ensure the closures of commercial markets and business outlets by 7 pm to save the electricity of 1500MW per day for provision of solace to the masses during the peak hours, a senior official of the ministry told The News.

However, the implementation of the proposed plan to get the markets closed down by the provinces is really an uphill task particularly under the scenario that shopping for Eidul Fitre gets started from first roza and gets more surge in momentum after the passage of first two weeks. More importantly masses and shopkeepers are also not tuned to run their commercial outlets in the hot days and sellers always prefer to open markets in the evening times. The official of the ministry said that after the Ramazan, the industrial sector will again be getting zero loadshedding meaning by that masses will face more outages in the month of July and August when humidity touches new highs.

However, the finalised plan for load management will be made public just two days proper to the initiation of holy month of Ramazan. The government has already announced its load management plan for summer season with 6 hours outages in urban areas and 8 hours in rural areas.

The electricity generation may touch to the staggering figure of 17500MW. The last year’s peak generation of electricity stood at 16890MW. The dependable capacity of the country has risen to 19,300MW. However, the maximum demand in the country is expected to increase up to over 22000MW that is also for two to three days in the season.

This time, old Guddu power plant that has been rehabilitated will add 550MW of electricity to the system as the same plant prior to up-gradation was generating 150-200MW of electricity last year.  This time with the hydro generation of 7000MW the system will grab for the maximum time as the dams have more than sufficient water and inflows are also on the rise. Currently hydro generation hovers around 5800MW which will increase up to the 7000MW subject to the increase in demand for water releases from the provinces.

And on top of that, we are also expecting the Chashma nuclear power plant (C-3) may come on stream in June and it will definitely be operational in July that will be providing solace of over 300MW. In addition, four wind mills will also inject at least 100MW of electricity in this system, top officials of the ministry of water and power told The News.

The said plan will be implemented smoothly subject to maximum cooperation from provincial governments on closure of market and no fault takes place in 5.5 million transformers and over 10,000 feeders.