Six power plants to be closed: Hammad

ISLAMABAD: Ministry for Energy Hammad Azhar informed the National Assembly on Monday that the federal government had decided to shut down six power plants, which will cause shortage of 1,796 MW power.

During the Question Hour, Hammad said there was no shortfall of electricity in the country and only the areas where more power was being stolen were facing loadshedding, says a media report.

The Ministry of Science and Technology replied that in 2020 and 2021, water analysis of 28 cities was found to be unsafe while water of 29 cities was foundto be safe. It said water of Bahawalpur was found to be 76% unsafe.

The response said presence of arsenic in the water could cause bladder and lung cancer. Our correspondent adds: The National Assembly again faced lack of quorum towards the end of the third parliamentary year on Monday.

PPP parliamentarian Dr. Shazia Sobia pointed out lack of quorum when the House was about to take up introduction of bills after the Question Hour. Speaker Asad Qaiser adjourned the proceedings till Tuesday (today). The ongoing session would continue for the next three days to complete 130 days of the third parliamentary year.

Minister for Energy Hammad Azhar Monday apprised the National Assembly that no forced power loadshedding was carried out across the country due to generation shortfall. Replying to various supplementary questions during the Question Hour, the minister said load management was being carried out in areas of high losses or transmission bottlenecks.

He said the installed generation capacity was sufficient enough to meet the system load demand. He said the government was well aware of the importance of supplying uninterrupted power supply and best possible efforts were made to meet the system load demand.

The minister said the government enhanced transmission capacity by 4,000MW during the last three years, while 3,000MW capacity would be enhanced in the coming year. To another question, he said two exploration and production companies namely the Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) and Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) were operating in Tehsil Gujjar Khan. To another question, he said natural gas resources were depleting by 10% every year adding that the domestic consumers had to be provided with natural gas to avoid increase in gas tariffs.