Power Division holds former govt responsible for power load-shedding

The Power Division has held the former Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government responsible for the on-going power load-shedding and declared that power generation capacity was not an issue but the power plants were shut due to lack of fuel and technical faults.

Sources privy to the development informed that power division while briefing the newly elected Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif about the availability of petroleum products and the electricity load-shedding during a hurriedly called meeting has made surprising revelations regarding the hours-long power load shedding currently being made across the country. 

Sources said that the power division has held former PTI government responsible for the power outages and presented a charge sheet of former government’s ‘incompetence’. They said the division has informed the premier that there was no capacity shortage of the electricity in the country, but the power generation plants were shut due to fuel shortage and technical faults. Total 18 power generation plants of 3605 megawatt capacity are currently not producing electricity only because of technical faults while nine power plants with 3535MW power generation capacity are shut due to fuel shortage, said sources.

“Most of the power plants have closed power generation due to administrative failure while few plants have shut down electricity production because of the poor policy decisions of the previous PTI government,” said sources.

They added that the former government did not bother to remove even minor technical faults relating to conveyor belt problem, boiler leakages, steam turbine issues etc of the power plants on time.

According to the sources, Nandipur power plant and Sahiwal Coal power plant that can produce electricity at cheap rates have stopped power generation due to unavailability of fuel.

Meanwhile, the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) has taken notice of the continued power load-shedding and summoned the heads of the closed power plants due to fuel or technical faults to appear before the authority on Friday (tomorrow). 

NEPRA has also asked the heads of closed power plants to submit explanations regarding the suspension of power generation from their power plants. Similarly, NEPRA has summoned National Power Control Center (NPCC) and Central Power Purchasing Agency (CPPA) to appear on Friday. Moreover, NEPRA while taking notice of the complaints of power consumers has asked DISCOs and K-Electric to appear before the authority on 19th April, 2022 and submit an explanation regarding the on-going power load-shedding.  

Ahmad Ahmadani
Ahmad Ahmadani
The author is a an investigative journalist at Profit. He can be reached at [email protected].

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