Posts Tagged ‘WAPDA’

Iran-Pakistan gas agreement to be signed next week

Pakistan and Iran will sign a gas sales and purchase agreement (GSPA) for their cross-border pipeline project next week, following a clearance by the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) on Tuesday, the caretaker minister for petroleum and natural resources, Ahsanullah Khan, said at a news conference on Monday.

“The implementation agreement for the project would be an inter-governmental sort of agreement and would be signed soon by the heads of states.”- the caretaker minister for petroleum and natural resources, Mr Ahsanullah Khan

He said the gas price finalised for the project, on the basis of the Japan Crude Cocktail (JCC), would be 40 per cent less than the current furnace oil prices and cut the oil import bill by about one billion dollars.

He said three options for pipeline diameter were currently under consideration — 36 inches, 42 inches and 56 inches — and would depend on India’s decision to join the project or otherwise.

Mr Ahsanullah said Pakistan would welcome Indian participation in the project at any stage, but clarified that New Delhi had not given “clear response” so far.

Mr Ahsanullah said that Wapda signed some  contracts of “undesirable” dimensions with rental power stations, without any authorisation and after gas disconnection, these power plants had to be shut down, aggravating the power crisis.
He said the overall gap between supply and demand stood around 25 per cent, or about one billion cubic feet, against a production of 3.90 BCF. The domestic gas consumption had increased by 60 per cent this year.

He said gas companies had made a number of measures to ease electricity shortages including the diversion of additional gas quantities as well.The petroleum secretary said that most of the exploration and production companies operating in Pakistan, almost 70 per cent of whom hailed from China, had been affected by the law and order situation.

Loadshedding to continue till 25 January

Countrywide eight-hour daily loadshedding would continue until January 25 due to shortage of oil and gas and canal closure for maintenance.

“The power availability shall by and large remain at the current level till January 25 when enhanced releases form Mangla and Tarbela dams are expected”
-Caretaker Minister for Water and Power Tariq Hameed

Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) has failed to come up with an ingenius responce to the worst energy crises of Pakistan. Current loadshedding has badly affected households, industrialists and businesses.

No new project is expected to start generation soon, infact not even a single mega watt has been added to the energy production capacity of the country in the last decade.

Country was facing a shortage of about 3,000MW because of a reduction in hydel power generation, but an additional burden of 1,500MW emerged in recent days, taking total shortage to over 4,000MW

The situation could worsen over the next few days owing to the lack of fuel stock of at least five independent power producers (IPPs).

People of Pakistan face electricity problem

According to the Pakistan Electric Power Company (PepCo), electricity deficit in the country hit a 3,600MW on Wednesday, where as the demand is around 10,000MW, and thus necessitating an eight-hour nationwide loadshedding.

Hydel-power generation hit an all-time low at 1,300MW against a peak summer generation of 6,600MW. Similarly, thermal generation went down by 800MW due to a squeeze on oil supplies and it generated 2,100MW against a summer supply of 2,900MW.

The authority faced a shortage of 600MW because power lines from HubCo were blown up on Tuesday. The PepCo supplied power to Karachi through alternative routes and reduced the supply of 300MW to the national grid in the morning.

Stoppage of gas supplies to different generating units worsened the deficit by another 500MW.

The company cannot shut power to hospitals, military installations and railway stations. This additional load is transferred to the general public. The same situation happened on Wednesday, taking the loadshedding beyond eight hours in most areas of the country.

“The load situation further worsens when taken against the backdrop of a constant load of around 1,500MW, which the company cannot shut off,”
- An official of Power Wing of the Water and Power Development Authority.

The performance of the Independent Power Producers (IPPs) were supposed to meet peak hours (6pm to 10pm) requirements but maintaining a constant supply in such a crisis situation had proved to be beyond them. Their contribution had never gone beyond 5,000MW against the installed capacity of 5,500MW.

A HubCo unit is out of order and is creating a constant deficit of 300MW.