Federal Energy Minister Awais Leghari on Tuesday said that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will give good news to people over IPPs within a month or two.
Addressing a youth convention in Islamabad he said, “Everyone will be benefited from it.”
The minister said that the steps were being taken to address energy crisis in the country. “Reforms are inevitable in energy sector,” he said.
He said the energy billing has been 1100 billion with 400 billion losses in it.
“We silently worked over the issue of the IPPs but all and sundry joined the bandwagon,” energy minister said. “It became good for us as it brings pressure over the IPPs,” he said.
“We convinced the IPPs within the limits of international contracts,” minister said. “We did the work in three-and-a-half months, which didn’t happen in Pakistan’s history,” Leghari said. He said the task force has been constituted, in which the agencies’ people have also been included.
Awais Leghari, acknowledged that the country has the highest electricity costs in the region, stating that the government is working towards resolving issues related to Independent Power Producers.
Awais highlighted that Pakistan’s actual power generation capacity is 29,000 MW, not the often-cited figure of 45,000 MW.
He noted that the year-round demand is just 7,000 MW, with peak demand reaching 24,000 MW. He suggested that if the country could endure 85 hours of load shedding over 40 days, the national exchequer could save Rs 50 billion.
Awais added that enduring 874 hours of load shedding annually, or about 10% of the year, could save up to PKR 100 billion in capacity payments. “Capacity payments are the price we pay to avoid load shedding,” Awais Leghari remarked.
He pointed out that due to the high cost of electricity, industries were shutting down but the government was “now providing electricity to the industries at lower rates, bearing the additional costs”.
“Another measure to save electricity is switching fans to energy efficient,” he said, adding that the government has chalked out new power plan to eliminate loadshedding.
Awais Leghari further said that earlier, the cost of electricity for the consumers was Rs10 per unit, but it has increased due to the depriciation of local curreny against US dollar. “The current average electricity cost stands at Rs44 per unit”, he added.
