Electricity shortfall not reason of loadshedding, NA told

ISLAMABAD: The government on Wednesday told the National Assembly that no load-shedding was being carried out in the country on account of generation shortfall, but on the basis of high aggregate technical and commercial (AT&C) losses of feeders.

In a reply to a question by Aseefa Bhutto-Zardari during the Question Hour, Minister for Law and Justice Azam Nazeer Tarar stated that at present, no loadshedding was being carried out in the country on account of generation shortfall. However, he clarified, the distribution companies (DISCOs) were carrying out load management in their areas on the basis of high aggregate technical and commercial (AT&C) losses of feeders. He said feeders with losses of up to 20 per cent were exempt from outages. He said smart meters would be installed on transformers in the first phase to check power pilferage.

“Sometimes feeders become faulty due to overloading, short circuiting or other faults, and consumers have to face unannounced power outages.”

The parliamentary affairs minister told the house that the Private Power and Infrastructure Board was actively pursuing promotion and development of alternative and renewable energy technologies for power generation in line with the government’s vision to diversify the energy mix. He said a total of 58 alternative and renewable energy-based projects of 3,837 megawatts cumulative capacity were operational in the country. These include 1,845 megawatts of wind power projects, he added.

To another question, Minister for Petroleum Division Dr Musadik Malik stated that the local gas production in the country stood at around 3200 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) and about 200mmcfd was consumed in its extraction. Replying to various questions during Question Hour, the minister said that out of available 3000mmcfd, 1,200-1,300mmcfd gas was being provided to fertiliser and power sectors. “The remaining 1,700-1,800mmcfd gas was pumped through gas companies’ network to consumers,” he added.

He conceded that Sindh was producing around 60 per cent of total gas but currently both Sindh and Punjab provinces were facing a gas deficit as the indigenous gas reserves were depleting.

Regarding the Pak-Iran gas pipeline project, the minister said the matter was sub-judice and “we have a cordial relationship with our neighbouring countries. “Various complications and international sanctions were there in the execution of the said project,” he added. He suggested that it would be appropriate to hold an in-camera session on the issue.

In a reply to another question with regard to the government’s anti-theft measures to address the issue of electricity theft, the Power Division told the National Assembly in a written reply that since Sept 2023 till June 2024, with the help of provincial governments, 171,334 FIRs were registered against electricity thieves and 84,060 people were arrested. The detection bills of 334 MkWh unit amounting to Rs12,663 million were charged to consumers and Rs7,018 million of detection bills recovered.