Measures afoot to produce cheap electricity, stop power theft: Omar Ayub

ISLAMABAD, Dec 12 (APP):Minister for Power Omar Ayub Khan Wednesday said the government was taking a range of measures
to generate cheap renewable energy and stop electricity theft by installing Aerial Bundle Cable (ABC) and advanced metering infrastructure in high theft areas.

During question hour, the minister told the National Assembly the aerial bundle cable (ABC) which could stop electricity theft, would be installed in areas of
IESCO, PESCO and LESCO with the financing of $ 900 million by the Asian
Development Bank.
Omar said the government was focusing on renewal energy and a new policy would be
introduced by March.
The cost of solar energy was dropping down in the world and the effort would be to replace
renewal energy with the expensive electricity, he added.
The minister told the government was prioritizing indigenous resources for affordable
generation including local Thar coal and hydel power.
He said when the government came into power, issue was high tariff and National Electric Power
Authority (NEPRA) was suggesting increase in tariffs. However the government
took measures to provide relief to consumers, he added.
He said there was no increase in rates for consumers using 300 units of electricity and
rate of Rs 5.25 per unit was given for tubewells.
Relief of Rs 1.27 per unit was given to the
farmers while the Ministry of Power planned to save Rs 150 billion through
different measures.
The minister
said the government was charging 35 percent capacity charges from consumers because
it could not utilize the generated electricity due to lack of demand.
He said 8000
FIRs have been registered against officials of power companies involved in
theft of electricity.
Half of the
electricity theft was occurring in areas of Peshawar Electric Supply Company
(PESCO) and the problem was severe in areas of Peshawar, Bannu and Dera Ismail
Khan.
The minister said Chitral had great hydel potential while Pakistan had the potential of
60,000 megawatts of hydel electricity and a study was being conducted to
ascertain demand of electricity in future before setting up new projects.
The federal and provincial governments were working together to plan hydel generation projects
which would be set up keeping in demand from consumers, he added.
He informed that NEPRA would announce the new tariff for electricity for which it already held
its hearing and made the determination.
To a question asked by MNA Aslam Bhootani, Omar said the private entity K Electric
should invest in transmission lines in Lasbela district and resolve issues
faced by the consumers.
He said power losses were occurring due to technical losses, faulty lines and lack of
investment in the distribution system.
The minister said the circular debt increased by Rs 400 billion as the last government supplied
electricity to areas where theft was already high. One of the reasons for high
tariff was power theft in almost all the distribution companies.
He said Balochistan had 27,000 tubewells and they were being put on solar system. As
the water table was getting low in the province, the solarization of tubewells
was being done to save energy costs. More small dams would be constructed in
Balochistan to conserve water.
To a question posed by MNA Ghulam Bibi Bharwana, he said the fixed charges on
tubewells were abolished which was appreciated by the farmers.
He said he issued directives for installation of transformers of same specifications,
adding a mafia was making money on maintenance of transformers. The network of
the “transformer mafia” would be broken, he added.
When MNA Iqbal Muhammad Ali drew attention of the over billing by K-Electric in Karachi,
the minister assured that he would take up the matter with the private power
company.
The minister
said setting up of power plants in distant coastal areas was not feasible as it
would require long distance transmission lines.
He said the
deposit of silt in Tarbela dam could be controlled after building of dams
upstream on the Indus river.
MNA Yousaf
Talpur complained that areas in his constituency in Sindh was without light for
hours. MNA Akhtar Mengal told that Gwadar was still getting electricity from
Iran and districts of Makran were not being fed by national grid.