Narowal Power Plant unable to generate because of non-payment: CEO

KARACHI: Zafar Iqbal Sobani, CEO Hub power Ltd informed has said that Circular debt continues to affect the operations of its plants and the Narowal plant which had been partially operating since the first week of January is now fully shutdown since 26 March 2013 on account of fuel shortage. If this 225 MW plant runs at its full capacity, it can reduce electricity in Punjab Province for over 45 minutes a day.

In a statement he said the biggest hurdle in production of electricity from this state of the art plant is the overdue amount for Narowal plant which has exceeded Rs. 19 billion and the amount overdue to our oil supplier for the fuel is Rs. 3.2 billion. How a private sector oil supplier can continue to provide oil without getting its billions of rupees of dues, he asked.

IPPs have requested the Ministries of Water & Power and Petroleum and Natural Resources to help the plants contribute their due role by producing maximum possible electricity while country is going through the worst load shedding of 12 to 20 hours in different cities of Punjab. Caretaker government must take notice of the issues being faced by the independent power producers of the country, due to unending circular debt quagmire.

He demanded equitable treatment to all the IPPs with regard to their pending dues. At the moment some IPPs who went to Supreme Court last year against nonpayment by the government, have been receiving partial payments on orders of Supreme Court and are able to generate fully while other plants are either running at their minimum throughput or are closed due to huge unpaid over dues by the government. Receivable of Narowal Plant is thrice the receivable of other similar IPPs.

He hoped that Ministers for Petroleum and Water & 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.

He informed that the reduced fuel supply has also affected the full operation of Hub plant in Baluchistan during the 3rd quarter of FY 2013. The fuel supplier has reduced supply below requirements for daily operations and fuel stock is at alarming level.