Karachi's future power requirements: Ministry urged to maintain regular liaison with K-Electric

ISLAMABAD: A special meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Energy (CCoE) has directed the Ministry of Energy to maintain regular liaison with K-Electric with regards to Karachi's future power requirements, and to make sure that such situation does not arise in the future.

The CCoE met with Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives (PDSI) Asad Umar in the chair on Monday at the Planning Commission to review the electricity demand and supply situation in Karachi, and the steps being taken to address electricity shortages.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of K-Electric Monis Abdullah Alvi informed the meeting that the KE system faced electricity shortage, which varied from 600 MW early next week to around 150 MW a day earlier.

He explained the measures being taken by the company to overcome the shortages.

According to the sources, the load shedding of electricity in Karachi city is main issue of shortage of gas to K-Electric.

They said that additional furnace oil would be provided to K-Electric from Hubco. They said that additional gas was being provided to K-Electric by the federal government.

The sources said that in the meeting, everyone was putting responsibility of load shedding and shortage of fuel on others.

However, Umar decided to set up a committee under Shahzad Qasim SAPM on Mineral Resources, to ascertain the reasons, including the fuel supply chain-related issues, which led to the present electricity crisis in Karachi.

The sources said that the committee under Shahzad Qasim had given five days deadline for preparing and submitting its findings on the crisis of power shortage in Karachi to the Cobinet Committee on Energy.

The CCOE directed the Ministry of Energy to maintain regular liaison with K-Electric with regards to Karachi's future power requirements, and to make sure that such situation did not arise in the future.

The Ministry of Power informed the meeting that all possible assistance was being provided to KE to make sure that sufficient supply of electricity was available to the people of Karachi.

The minister planning said that the roles and responsibilities of various stockholders in relation to supply of electricity to Karachi should be clear to everyone, which should form the basis for accountability in case of failures.

The meeting was attended by Minister for Energy Omar Ayub Khan, Minister for Maritime Affairs Ali Zaidi, Advisor Finance Hafeez Sheikh, SAPM on Petroleum Nadeem Babar, SAPM on Mineral Resources Shahzad Qasim, and officials of various divisions.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020