Zardari urges Nawaz to help Sindh overcome power crisis

Karachi
Former president Asif Ali Zardari has requested Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to use his good offices to overcome load shedding in Sindh which was facing the worst kind of power crisis in this unbearable weather.
In a letter written to the prime minister earlier this month, Zardari pointed out to Sharif that the larger portion of the province faced up to 20 hours of load shedding and urged him to take notice of the problem.
He said if the problems of the people were not attended to, the power crisis would aggravate the overall situation of the province in the coming months.
Zardari reminded the prime minister that in their meeting on May 13, they had discusses the power crisis in Sindh and the provincial finance minister had followed up on the issues in his subsequent meetings with the federal minister of energy and power.
He said as decided in the meeting, the Sindh government had paid Rs2.4 billion as electricity dues while the federal minister of water and power still had to resolve issues pertaining to payment of small plants in Naudero and Dadu, deciding tariffs of wind and small hydro plants and reduction in load shedding hours in Sindh.
Zardari also told the prime minister that he had been informed by the provincial finance minister that there had been no progress on part of the federal water and power ministry for the resolution of the above-mentioned issues.
He said all these issues had been explained to the relevant federal ministry on a letter written on June 5 by the Sindh minister for finance and energy, Murad Ali Shah, requesting to resolve them.
In his letter to the federal minister of water and power, Shah had informed him that most areas in Sindh continued to suffer from long periods of power outages and the provincial government with the help of Centre was trying to overcome the issue.
Shah said the Sindh government had been trying to collaborate with the federal ministry for the payment of dues to HESCO (Hyderabad Electric Supply Company). He said the provincial government had managed to pay Rs4.2 billion but it was still waiting for any progress from the Centre in this regard.
Shah said the non-payment of small power producers in regions under Hyderabad and Sukkur power companies had adversely affected generation of electricity in the province and sponsors had begun shutting down power plants.
He said the closure of these private power producers would result in even longer hours of load shedding which cannot be sustained or tolerated in the month of Ramzan and the excruciating heat.
The Sindh finance minister requested the federal government’s intervention to retain 180 megawatts of affordable electricity into the system.
He also requested the federal ministry of power to withdraw its instructions outlined in a letter sent on January 28 to distribution companies to not pay the small power plants at their level because it will be done through PEPCO (Pakistan Electric Power Company).
The letter also apprised the federal minister that the Sindh government had received offers from local and foreign investors to set up indigenous fuel-based small power plants, besides hydro, wind and solar-powered projects.
The Sindh finance minister requested that instructions be issued to issue LOIs for these plants by distribution companies, NTDC (National Transmission and Dispatch Company) and the CPPA (Central Power Purchasing Agency) along with other federally-administered agencies.
He assured the federal minister that through these measures Sindh would be able to add 1,000 megawatts to the grid by the end of 2016.
Regarding the issues highlighted by former president Zardari in his letter, the Sindh finance minister also pointed out that there had been no progress on the LOIs requested for Naudero and Dadu gas-powered plants.
He also pointed out that the first-generation wind power projects were provided an upfront levelised tariff of USC 13.52 per kilowatt per hour which expired on March 31.
He said recently, the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority had held a public hearing after which it had proposed a levelised tariff of USC 9.52 per kilowatt per hour which was rejected by investors because it was reduced by 37 percent.
Shah conveyed to the federal government that Sindh government will not accept such a low tariff while pointing out that he had repeatedly requested the federal authorities to resolve the matter but so far no positive response had been received.