| Karachi – The Chairman, National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) Lt. General (Retd) Saeed-uz-Zafar has said that if serious efforts are not made to increase generation, the consumers may receive costly power. He was speaking as chief guest at a seminar on “Energy Crisis Challenges and Future Strategies” on the occasion of first anniversary celebration of monthly “Energy Update” at a local hotel on May 18, 2007. The per unit cost of electricity may shoot-up to Rs 15 per unit in future due to high power tariffs and increasing fuel cost, Saeed. “We are importing oil for consumption and for last few years we are discussing about gas import from various options and now we are planning to import electricity.” He offered the industrial sector to generate electricity from their ‘captive power’ and said Nepra can buy 300-400MW from the private sector industries. The Nepra chief congratulated the Chief Editor and team of Energy Update on completing the first year of the magazine. He also lauded the effort of the editorial team on producing high quality material on energy sector. Speaking on the occasion, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC) Lt. General (Retd) S. M. Amjad said the outstanding amount of power utility on city’s consumers is Rs 20 billion, excluding government departments. Only Rs 3 billion bills were disputed, he maintained. “This was due to our weak recovery system that would not able to collect pending outstanding,” he said, adding that the government should made legislation for dues recoveries. The Managing Director of Asia Petroleum Limited, Naved Alam Zubairi said only 55 percent of population has access to electricity, while 22 percent receiving piped gas. Pakistan is extremely low energy intensity economy of 14 MMBTU per capita per annum. Mr. Abbas Bilgrami, Managing Director of Progas, a company that imports, markets and manages LPG terminal, said the import of liquefied natural gas (LNG) at spot price was not economically feasible.He said new technologies should be employed to utilise sizeable gas reserves from small fields. This could be done by compressing natural gas – CNG – into transportable vessels and then bringing them to the market, he added. Progas is in advanced stages of a similar project that also envisages import of CNG from other countries. Mr. Malik Khuda Bux, Chairman CNG Owners Association of Pakistan, Abdul Sami Khan, Chairman CNG Dealers Association, Dr. Kaiser Waheed Shaikh, Chairman of National Forum for Environment and Health , Abdusami Sheikh, Assistant Chief, Enercon also spoke on the occasion. In his welcome address, the Editor of Energy Update said that the initial period for the magazine was very difficult, but with the help of people associated with energy sector and hard work of the staff the problems were overcome. In the end the Nepra Chairman distributed shields among the panel of speakers and staff of Energy Update. |
Energy Update 1st Anniversary & Seminar on Energy Crises, Challenges & Future Strategy
