ISLAMABAD - The government didn’t take on board stakeholders such as representatives of distribution companies before launching idea of outsourcing public sector companies.
Reliable sources while talking to TheNation said that government’s plan to outsource distribution cannot be called a rational decision and every quarter in power sector is opposing it but Chairman Pakistan Power Infrastructure Board might has his own plans or Prime Minister might know in detail what is going on.
It is worth mentioning here that government several months back launched the idea that to increase power generation, it is going to outsource thermal plants of public sector on operations and maintenance basis. As per idea, companies would increase efficiency of plants by overhauling them.
When Wapda has all required resources to overall these plants there was no need to outsource government owned units in the private sector, the sources said. They further said that outsourcing of plants would increase cost of electricity for consumers.
Leaving apart that whether or not, the idea is feasible, what is the reason behind taking decision by the government by itself and not taking the stakeholders in confidence, the sources said that the question is creating doubts among employees and other stakeholders.
Public sector at present owns 10 power houses other than hydel besides other resources. The government launched a proposal to outsource these plants on the grounds that private investors would enhance efficiency of unit  that actually wrong as Wapda engineers overhauled some machines on their own.
As per details, the said plants had a capacity of more than 4,800 megawatt but over the years it depleted and presently the dependable capacity falls at 3,550 MW that even is not being generated due to several reasons. Wapda engineers successfully overhauled some machines as well in different distribution companies but again the full capacity is not being utilised.
It is learnt that the maximum electricity generation by these power stations is ranging between 1,200 to 1,800 MW in different times. The major reason was that government remained unable to provide fuel to run these plants.
So whether outsource the plants or Wapda runs it by itself, power generation is dependent on fuel supply. So in the given circumstances, it seems to be a novel idea just, the sources said.