ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Monday directed the Ministry of Water and Development to take immediate measures for resolution of Tariff issues and minimum load shedding during the holy month of Ramazan.
While chairing the third consecutive meeting of Cabinet Committee on Energy in Islamabad, the prime minister directed the Ministry of Water and Power to immediately resolve `upfront tariff’ issues with National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) for different kinds of sources including Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), Solar, Coal, Furnace Oil, Diesel and Gas.
The prime minister directed the line departments should work out immediate solutions for administrative and legal issues faced in implementation of energy projects on priority.
The NTDC was directed to pick up pace of work on HVDC transmission lines and other smaller transmission lines projects.
Nawaz Sharif also directed to carry out comparative study about efficiency of various power sources, for presentation in the next CCOE meeting.
The prime minister said that the government was working on multiple options of power generation so that consumers were provided with uninterrupted power supply. For this purpose the government has focused on adding base load thermal power projects which shall ensure availability of power all through the year even during lean periods of Hydro power generation in 2018 and onwards, he added.
The meeting was attended by Minister for Petroleum & Natural Resources Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal, Minister for Water & Power Khawaja Muhammad Asif, Chief Minister Punjab Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif, Minister for Information & Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb, Special Assistant to PM Tariq Fatemi and senior officials.
The Secretary Water and Power briefed the meeting on current load management plan, implementation status of planned and ongoing energy projects and enhancement of transmission system.
The Secretary Water and Power said that during the present government a total of 9,625 MW in 132 Kv and 2,004 MW in 11 Kv systems and capacity enhancement have been achieved in the transmission system. He termed it an unprecedented step and said it was essential keeping in view the new power generation which was scheduled to come into national grid and allocated to DISCOs in next nine months.
The Chairman WAPDA briefed the meeting on progress of Hydel power projects including Dasu, Diamer Bhasha and Mohmand Dam.
