Situationer: Fuel import suspension at the root of power crisis

LAHORE: Lack of fuel imports has emerged as the main cause of the lingering power crisis, hitting consumers hard and inflicting a shortfall of over 5000mw or 20 percent in electricity supply against the demand.

With rising mercury levels and low electricity generation, power demand has breached the 25,000mw mark while production hardly tops 20,000mw, leaving a shortfall of over 5,000mw. Despite having excess generation capacity at hand, the federal government lacks finances for buying fuel for thermal power plants that are run on natural gas and coal. Resultantly, the ongoing menace of power outages has mounted by 6-8 hours of load-shedding daily in the country. Power generation of about 10,000mw from thermal plants run on imported coal and Regasified Liquefied Natural Gas (RLNG) has severely diminished due to a lack of fuel.

The price of LNG and coal have nosedived in the global market if compared with the price levels of the last summer. Despite the downward trend in prices of natural gas and coal in the international market, imports have not been resumed. Afghanistan coal was said to be a remedy but to no avail. Commenting on the power scenario gripping the country, an insider was of the opinion that the liquidity issue, is the biggest hurdle in importing coal and LNG. He continued to say that even if the government manages the import of fuel, it may not be an affordable option despite the massive decline in natural gas and coal prices in the global market. The imbalance in rupee-dollar parity, is not letting the cost of power generation down. In turn power plants, including 4000mw coal-fired and about 6000mw RLNG-fueled power plants, are not operating as per capacity. The power cost of Sahiwal Coal-fired plant is said to be in the range of Rs.30 per unit and RLNG plants cost Rs 22 to 42 per unit. Hence, sources claimed that the lack of natural gas and coal and unaffordable imports are primarily the root cause of the present shortfall in power supply.

When contacted, a senior official at the helm of power affairs did not deny the notion that the high cost of energy is severely restricting power generation in the country, resulting in a shortfall of over 5000mw and consequent power outages of 6-8 hours on a daily basis.

Insiders believe the impending cyclone Biparjoy may threaten the national power grid. They fear the high-velocity winds pose a serious challenge to the power grid by disrupting electricity generation, distribution and transmission from Thar coal, Port Qasim electric plants, nuclear power and wind plants located in the coastal and lower Sindh areas. If this happens it can potentially deprive the national grid of 7-10 thousand megawatts spanning from Karachi to central parts of the country. A power failure, in this scenario, may last for days, depending upon the nature and extent of damage, insiders believe.