By Asad Cheema
ISLAMABAD: Former President Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI), Shahid Rasheed Butt on Friday said 18 new power plants to start production by 2023 boosting overall electricity production to 38000 megawatt. In the summer season the surplus electricity will be 13000 megawatt while winters will see surplus power production by 26000 megawatt resulting in an unprecedented burden on the masses, he said.
Shahid Rasheed said despite surplus power, there will be no let up in load shedding and outages while millions will not be connected to national grid due to poor transmission and distribution system. Currently the Government is spending Rs850 billion in capacity payments but it is yet to come up with a proper plant to boost consumption or explore the chances of export, he added.
He said that eighteen coal, wind, solar and hydropower plants will soon start providing thousands of megawatt electricity to the national grid which is not needed but the government will have to pay them billions in the
capacity payments as per the agreements. The former ICCI President said that the power tariff has been increased by
30 percent over the last two years which has not resulted in any improvement but triggered theft and reduced consumption while IMF is pressing for a further hike which is against the national interests.
The power sector will crumble under the load of excess electricity therefore the government should plan to increase consumption of electricity, he demanded.
