Circular debt to be settled by this month-end to ease power shortage

[Naveed Yaseen]

LAHORE: The government plans to clear circular debt of Rs400 billion by the end of the current month and the Independent Power Producers (IPPs) and other power generation units have been directed to pull their socks up for the coming summer.

Federal Water and Power Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf said this while addressing a press conference at the Lahore Electric Supply Company (Lesco) headquarters here on Thursday.

He expected a difficult summer due to increase in demand but promised to set things right by the end of this year.

Around 1,000 megawatts would be added to the system by June and another 2,000 megawatts by December, which would help end the menace of load shedding from the country, he hoped. ‘Every year power demand grows by 8 to 10 per cent and to meet this demand, installation of new power projects is very important. Independent Power Producers (IPPs) and other power generation units have been directed to prepare for the summer season to meet the demand.’

The minister said the government was also working on various hydel projects, including Neelum-Jhelum for which the Chinese engineers had arrived at the site. Work on Kohala, Dasu and Bunji was also going on and these projects would soon be commissioned.

‘The government has allocated funds for Bhasha Dam and work on it will also start shortly,’ he said.

In addition to thermal and hydel generation, he said, the government was also exploring the possibility of power generation from coal and the country would soon start getting 1,000 to 3,000 megawatts from coal, he added.

‘Wind energy is another area under government focus and the first windmill will start working soon at Jhampir in Sindh and import of 1,100 megawatts from Iran will also provide relief to the nation,’ he concluded.

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