ISLAMABAD: The government has signaled that despite ample power generation capacity, the country would face power outages, the reason being power transmission constraints and line losses.
The Federal Minister of Power Omar Ayub Khan on Thursday announced this saying in upcoming summer, the government will undertake load management in the high losses areas.
“We have created a space of 3,000MW electricity in our transmission system and the system is no capable of transmitting 19,000MW electricity in summer”, he said while talking to the inauguration ceremony of the data portal for power sector.
Where there is Kundas and lines losses, there will be loadshedding during summer season, said the minister. He said that they are removing the inefficiencies of power sector entities and will recruit professional people in all the power sector entities. The distribution system of the Discos is outdated and “we require huge investment in transmission and distribution system.” The government is working to control Kunda system and promote net metering in Discos.
Work on Lahore Matiari Transmission line will start within coming few weeks. To fight the smog and improve the energy security in the country high voltage lines would be established. The minister said during past three months by controlling theft and improvement in distribution system Rs40 billion were saved.
Holding the policies of the previous government responsible for the circular debt the minister said that to manipulate the general elections the PML-N government had provided electricity to the loss making feeders which has increased the losses. In just one year of the previous government, the circular debt was increased by Rs450 billion.
The minister said that the circular debt has reached to Rs400 billion; however, it has now started decreasing, and they have paid Rs200 billion to Independent Power Producers (IPPs). The minister said that there is no surplus electricity in the country, and they are working on the import of electricity from Turkmenistan. He said that transmission lines have been improved and to meet the summer demand, they have a generation plan and they have run all the power generation plants.
The total volume of Pakistan’s economy is $300 billion. If we include the informal economy, the total volume will reach to $600 billion. The energy requirements for such a big economy is increasing.
