ISLAMABAD - While the government is all set to renew the electricity agreement with K-Electric, Minister of State for Water and Power Ali has started opposing provision of power to it on the social media.
Sources in the water and power sector told this scribe that the government was going to provide electricity to K-Electric. “It is not still clear whether the next agreement is made for one year or for a longer period of time, but it is evident that the government has to provide electricity to it just because of its incompetence to force the company to generate its own energy,” sources said.
On Friday evening, Abid Sher Ali tweeted several tweets against K-Electric demand for electricity from the national grid. “K-Electric has been spreading disinformation on the issue of power supply from NTDC that if 650MW is not supplied, loadshedding will increase in Karachi,” the minister stated.
The minister further stated, “K-Electric is only interested in having 650MW to continue to benefit from the earlier concession.” He kept on saying that the company was supposed to generate its own electricity as per the power purchase agreement.
Another tweet of the state minister states, “It is very clear that even if 650MW power is not supplied, K-Electric has enough generation capacity to have zero loadshedding in its operational area. In fact, K-Electric does not operate its own plants as its profit margins decrease.”
The minister stated that KE had an installed generation capacity of 2,419MW whereas its total load was 1,700-2,000MW. He opposed the perception being spread by K-Electric that if electricity supply from the government side is suspended, the tariff for the consumers will go up.
Abid Sher Ali publically stated, “Karachi is considered at par with other Discos under the ECC decision. This is an incorrect perception that if 650MW power is not supplied, electricity price will go up in Karachi.” But he said the government is burdened by around Rs 70 billion by providing electricity to K-Electric.
The government’s five-year electricity supply agreement with K-Electric recently expired and it is not bound to renew the agreement as the company was responsible for making its plants operational during the term of the agreement, official sources confirmed.
While supporting the stance of State Minister Abid Sher Ali, the sources said the government with Khawaja Asif as its minister of water and power failed to establish its writ and could not manage implementation of the terms of the agreement settled with K-Electric. “To provide electricity to K-Electric, the government has to run power plants, using expensive fuel in case K-Electric fulfils its responsibility.
But keeping in view the present state of will of the government, K-Electric will carry on looting the national kitty as no one is concerned enough to stop this and force the company to make its plants operational.
The sources said the government provides electricity to K-Electric at the Discos’ rate that it does not want to lose as it increases its profits many times.