Power shortfall is intensifying fast with the start of canal desilting by the end of current month, bringing the hydel generation to halt when the government is even not utilising the thermal generation up to the optimum level. The power generation is lurking around 10,000MW against the possibility of generating 14,000MW by the government. It is learnt that the government was heavily relying on the gas for power generation instead of importing furnace oil and producing expensive electricity.

This policy decision has perturbed the industry at large, depending on gas supply to keep operations of their Captive Power Plants (CPPs) intact. It is learnt that there would be no gas supply to the CPPs for next two months and all available gas would be diverted to the IPPs. But no one knows as how the government would deal with the situation when hydel generation would come to zero level due to canal desilting. The consumers are unhappy with the government policy of depriving them from electricity in winter when demand slashes down by half. They said the government has reduced power generation capacity at the cost of industrial growth.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2012