IPPs face financial crunch
Circular debt cripples power generation capacity
* Narowal Plant, Hubco unable to generate power due to non-payment of dues
By Razi Syed
KARACHI: The circular debt situation is worsening day by day and crippling the power generation capacity of the country as the independent power producers (IPPs) are operating below their capacity while some of them have even closed down.
Talking to Daily Times on Wednesday, an official of an IPP said, IPPs have requested the Ministries of Water and Power and Petroleum and Natural Resources to help the power plants in their due role of producing maximum possible electricity.
The country is going through the worst load shedding of 12 to 20 hours in different cities of Punjab besides Sindh. The caretaker government should take notice of the issues being faced by the IPPs of the country due to unending circular debt quagmire, he added.
The biggest hurdle in production of electricity from some of the state-of-the-art power plants is the overdue amount, which has exceeded by billions of rupees and amount overdue to oil supplier companies for fuel.
For instance Narowal Plant, which had been partially operational since the first week of January 2013, is now fully shutdown since March 26, 2013 on account of fuel shortage.
If this 225 megawatts (MW) plant runs at its full capacity, it can reduce electricity load shedding in Punjab province for over 45 minutes a day.
Narowal plant has exceeded Rs 19 billion and the amount overdue to oil supplier for the fuel is Rs 3.2 billion. How can an IPP continue its activity under such conditions, he maintained.
How can a private sector oil supplier continue to provide oil without getting its billions of rupees dues, asked the official.
Receivable of Narowal Plant is thrice the receivable of other similar IPPs and the official hoped ministers for petroleum and water and power would take notice of this discriminatory practice and would take immediate actions to solve this problem to bring this efficient power plant of 214 MW on line.
At the moment some IPPs who went to Supreme Court last year against non-payment by the government, have been receiving partial payments on orders of Supreme Court and were able to generate fully while other plants were either running at their minimum throughput or are closed due to huge unpaid over dues by the government.
According to a Hubco official, the IPPs demanded equitable treatment for all the IPPs regarding their pending dues.
The official informed the reduced fuel supply has also affected the full operation of Hub plant in Balochistan during the third quarter of fiscal year 2012-13. The fuel supplier has reduced supply below requirements for daily operations and fuel stock is at an alarming level.
Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan