SLAMABAD: Minister for Power Sardar Awais Leghari Thursday informed the National Assembly that his government has added 10,973 megawatts of electricity in the national grid during the last five years.

The minister said during the Question Hour that the government is completing the power projects in record time and more generation of electricity will also help reduce the power tariff.

Responding to questions of the members, he said that the LNG-based power plants are being completed in a record time which will provide cheap and reliable power to the system. Members of the opposition parties, however, protested against the minister, saying that prolonged hours of load-shedding are still being observed in different parts of the country including Karachi and interior Sindh. The members of Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) also staged a token walkout from the House to register their protest against extended hours of load-shedding in Karachi. The minister, however, said that load management is being carried out on high loss feeders only in order to save the government kitty from paying for the theft. Leghari informed the House that the present installed capacity to generate electricity was 30,195 megawatts while the de-rated capacity was 28,440 MW. He said that the average 14,275 megawatts electricity was being generated with 1,572 megawatts hydel, 2,092 megawatts by power generation companies (GENCOs) and 19,610 megawatts by independent power producers.

Published in Business Recorder, 13th April, 2018

https://epaper.brecorder.com/2018/04/13/5-page/710352-news.html