Power Loadshedding in December January: MD PEPCO
LAHORE: Managing Director Pakistan Electric Power Company Tahir Basharat Cheema has said the power infrastructure is crumbling due to paucity of funds but the situation is now improving.
He was talking to the media persons at the 3rd international power generation conference and exhibition POWERGEN PAK 2009 on “Power Efficiency; Up-gradation and Self-Reliance” organised by the Energy Update at a local hotel on Thursday.
He said the company had paid off all its due apart from investing infrastructure and augmentation of the system. He stressed that the government should devise public sector policies, keeping in view improvement in social realities of the society. The Pepco, being a public sector company, was also striving for the same.
Mr Cheema also listed three essentials for successful public policy i.e. honesty, commitment and being responsive to public demands and suggestions. Unfortunately, he said, public sector had been ignored for too long and funds diverted to other sector. It had come back to haunt us now, he said.
Talking about the energy sector, he said, the Thar Coal Development Company was doing really well and he was satisfied with its performance. He said electricity theft, however, remained a problem. In the last two months, he said that some 140 factories, which were involved in theft, had been checked and dealt with by the company. He stressed upon the need of indigenous resources to be self reliant. The indigenization should be adapted as the foremost goal by the public and the government.
In the next few months, he said there might be a power deficit but Pepco would try its best to avoid the loadshedding. Sindh and Punjab demanded 3-5 weeks for the Bhal Safai of the canals. During this period, he said, the hydel generation would become minimum. The desilting of canals, however, would be completed till January 31st. He said PEPCO was trying its best to come over the problem of over-billing.
Mr Cheema said the Nepra would determine the power tariff on the basis of furnace oil prices in a transparent manner.The Pepco MD also called for the preparation of Power National Policy in the power sector on the lines of defence and nuclear national policies.
Pakistan Power Resources’ Iqbal Z Ahmed, Descon Engineering’s Amer Hadi, United Nations Industrial Development’s Tanvir Mehmood, Munawwar Baseer Ahmad, Tanzeem Naqvi, Energy Update’s Naeem Qureshi, Thar Coal Energy Board, Sindh, member Asad Ali Shah, Mines and Minerals, Sindh, secretary Ijaz Khan and others also spoke on the occasion.
