KE ties gas supply to stabilisation of power situation

KARACHI: K-Electric’s (KE) on Wednesday said its generation capacity continues to remain impaired owing to reduced gas supply from Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC.

“While the power utility is maximising all available generation fleet to provide maximum relief to the people, adequate gas is imperative to normalise the power situation in the city,” the KE said in a statement issued.

“In addition to supplying the city the electricity generated through own sources, the utility is also using power from IPPs (independent power producers) and national grid to provide approximately 2,300 MW power to Karachi.”

The utility further said had adequate gas supply been available to KE during this time, the total available generation would have enabled KE to ensure that supply situation in the city remained normal. It added that the utility was in urgent need of 190MMCFD gas, which has further been asserted in the summary of the report issued by National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) yesterday.

The power company, in its preliminary comments on the summary, highlighted that the Bin Qasim Power Station-I was the only dual-fuel plant within KE’s existing generation fleet, having a dependable capacity of 989 MW and currently generating close to 800 MW.

“The plant has 6 units out of 5 are operational and one is undergoing maintenance. The fact that this one unit is offline is already part of public record and mentioned in our earlier statements,” the KE said.

The utility also said it may be noted that under normal circumstances with adequate gas supply, maintenance would not have created any issue, as KE had enough generation capacity available, which would have enabled it to manage demand before the start of peak summer season (i.e. May and June). “KE continues to make all efforts to bring the said unit online at the earliest,” the statement said.

The company further said the facility of alternate high speed diesel involved technical parameters and considerations and as such currently, the gas-fired plants were not in a position to immediately switch to any alternate fuel.

“The process to initiate this conversion / commissioning is lengthy and therefore an immediate solution to bring these plants online remains the provision of required gas,” the KE said. The KE added that the historic trend of natural gas supplied to KE, which was backed by Economic Coordination Committee’s (ECC) allocation of 276 MMCFD gas supply to the power utility, was the primary reason for continued reliance on gas to power these plants. “The regulatory authority in its determination for Licensee Proposed Modification (LPM) in the matter of KE’s Generation License in 2013 also acknowledged SSGC’s commitment of supplying KE with 276 MMCFD of gas,” the power utility aid in the statement.