ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will have to bear power sector losses of Rs360 billion this year — three times greater than those in 2013 — because of insignificant reduction in system losses and increased electricity supply.

“Because of increase in the quantum of power generated, we will have to absorb Rs360bn annual losses despite 1.2 per cent reduction in [system] losses,” said Minister for Power Sardar Awais Ahmed Khan Leghari in a statement released by his office on Thursday.

He said surplus electricity was now available in the system, sufficient to end loadshedding across the country, but only if there were no losses.

Insiders in the Power Division said the minister was “setting the stage” for relatively greater loadshedding in the coming seasons after inability of the government and its power companies to “improve electricity bills and reduce system losses”.

Mr Leghari said the economy could not afford losses worth Rs360bn a year, and the cost of electricity theft could also not be passed on to the paying consumers. Hence, the losses would have to be curtailed through other means.

He did not specify what these means might include, but pointed to the electricity consumers and the provincial governments, saying power losses could not be decreased without their cooperation. “They should cooperate, get their meters installed, pay their bills on time and raise a voice against electricity thieves so that we can ensure them uninterrupted power supply,” he said.

“If [system] losses and theft are not controlled, we will have to unwillingly increase power cuts proportionately to areas with higher losses despite availability of surplus power,” he warned.

The minister acknowledged that the country used to suffer losses of Rs120bn a year in 2013 when system losses stood at 19pc and power generation at 14,800MW.

“The transmission and distribution losses are now at 17.8pc. This means we have reduced these losses by 1.2pc,” he said.

Mr Leghari claimed the power production in coming summer would reach 25,000MW, which was 69pc higher than what it was in 2013.

He said the government would examine the losses in the first or second week of March and formally announce whether or not to increase the duration of loadshedding.

The minister said the government stopped power cuts to areas with less than 10pc losses in December 2017 and announced that it would end loadshedding on feeders where losses fell below 10pc anywhere in the country.

At the same time, the power distribution companies, their board of directors, management and staff were also given targets to reduce losses.

He said a number of other steps were also taken, like net metering and accurate billing to facilitate consumers to the maximum and removal of chief executive officers of five distribution companies whose performance was poor.

The minister said the maximum demand in coming March was estimated to be 15,800MW and the generation capacity would stand at about 16,000MW. In April, the demand and supply was estimated to be 18,000MW and 18,800MW respectively.

Likewise, demand was projected to increase to 20,888MW against 20,900MW available capacity in May while generation would jump to 24,310MW against a demand of 23,966MW in June. Similarly, the demand would grow to 24,029MW against production availability of 24,800MW.

This showed the system had enough supply to cover demand in the summer months “even though temporary breakdowns due to technical fault at power plants or transformers and distribution lines could not be ruled out for which regular announcements would be made,” Mr Leghari concluded.

Published in Dawn, February 23rd, 2018