The government has decided to initiate a survey of electricity consumers to address issues of power theft, line losses, power companies’ losses and circular debt.

According to sources in the ministry of finance, power distribution companies will conduct the survey, which is part of a broader strategy chalked out by the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank and the Planning Commission to tackle the energy crisis.

A survey for the Islamabad Electric Supply Company (IESCO) has already been finalised as part of a pilot project. Feedback from the project will be funnelled into finalising the survey for power distribution companies.

The survey is expected to discover the amount of electricity consumed by each consumer, the number of commercial, industrial and residential consumers in each distribution company’s vicinity, the amount of electricity consumed by public institutions and the amount of defaulters in each category.

According to the current project, the size of electricity bills will also be reduced. In the IESCO pilot project, bills are expected to be reduced in size by 20 to 25 per cent. The project will also collect data on consumers by partnering with the National Database Registration Authority (Nadra). Proposals to bill consumers through email and text messaging are also under consideration.

From Tribune

Pakistan will push hard for quick implementation of a long-delayed trans-regional gas pipeline from Turkmenistan in a bid to ease its mounting energy crisis, Petroleum Minister Naveed Qamar said on Tuesday. Senior officials of Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India on Monday inked the framework of an agreement to construct the project with an estimated value of $3.3 billion.

The project would pump natural gas to Pakistan and India through the southern Afghan province of Kandahar, the stronghold of the Taliban and its birthplace. More energy security could ease pressure on Pakistan’s government, which faces a range of challenges, from a home-grown Taliban insurgency to what will likely be years of economic pain after summer floods caused billions of dollars in damages.

But analysts said the agreement was still at a preliminary stage and that security challenges in Afghanistan and the tensions between India and Pakistan remained an obstacle. Proposals to build the pipeline have been on the table since the 1990s but war in Afghanistan delayed the project.

“We are following a very, very aggressive timeframe to conclude agreements on this project as early as possible,” Petroleum Minister Naveed Qamar told Reuters by telephone on his way home from Turkmenistan, where the agreement was initialled on Monday. “But it’s too early to say that when these agreements will be completed and when the project will be implemented. Everything is subject to conclusion of agreements.”

The big question is can Afghanistan provide security for the pipeline? A Taliban insurgency is still raging there after nine years of war and more uncertainty is expected after US troops start withdrawing next summer. Any new tensions between arch-enemies Pakistan and India could also complicate efforts to get the project moving. Qamar said a final framework agreement is expected to be signed at a summit of the leaders of the four countries in December.

A pact covering the broad principles of sale and purchase of gas was also signed. Although some Pakistani energy officials hailed the tentative agreement, analysts say it may just be more wishful thinking. “It’s an agreement to reach another agreement without any concrete details and until then it cannot be termed as important,” said Khalid Iqbal Siddiqui, director of Pakistan’s Invest and Finance Securities Ltd. “This is not the first time it has happened.” The planned pipeline would have initial capacity for 33 billion cubic metres a year and would run for nearly 2,000 km (1,250 miles), including 735 km across Afghanistan and another 800 km through Pakistan. Natural gas to fill the pipeline could be drawn from the massive South Iolotan deposit, currently under development, and the existing Dovletabad field.

Pakistan also hopes a major gas pipeline project from Iran will help it tackle its energy problems. In March, the two sides signed a deal to build a much-delayed $7.6 billion pipeline pumping Iranian natural gas to Pakistan. That project may also be fraught with political uncertainties as the United States has been discouraging Pakistan from any deal with Tehran because of its suspected ambitions to build nuclear weapons. Iran denies it has such ambitions.

via Business Recroder

An interesting report from DAWN summaries the Asian Development Bank report which holds the Ministry of Water and Power and NEPRA (National Electric Power Regulatory Authority) responsible for power crises the country faces.

The Asian Development Bank has held two major power sector stakeholders — the Ministry of Water and Power and the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) — responsible for most of the ills Pakistan’s power sector is facing today, including loadshedding, system losses and high tariffs.
This puts a serious question mark on the performance of the two public sector institutions designed and set up to solve electricity problems and remove consumers’ sufferings. They have been blamed for stalling or delaying reforms launched by the government more than two decades ago.

In its “Technical Assistance Completion Report” on creation of Central Power Purchasing Agency (CPPA), the ADB said there had been setbacks to its technical assistance because of lax attitude of Pakistan authorities; it provided another opportunity to the lender to sell another technical assistance for strengthening the regulatory regime.

Because of delays in obtaining internal approval within the government, several milestones, including the establishment of CPPA, could not be achieved. “There were significant delays encountered i.e. converting the market rules guidelines into formal statutes; the incorporation/registration of CPPA and finalisation of its budget; and the nomination of its chief executive officer and senior management. The CEO still remains to be appointed by government after nearly 18 months of its inception,” ADB’s principal energy specialist F.C. Kawawaki said on Monday.

“The weak capacity of Nepra to formulate market rules delayed the implementation process and the ADB was requested to process a follow-up technical assistance to help Nepra in developing market rules,” he added.

Since 1998, the government has been implementing a strategic power sector restructuring and unbundling plan to end the persistent power crisis through increased investments to address longstanding fiscal, technical and fiscal deficits.

The ADB report said that the reforms process had been slow and power supply and infrastructure requirements did not keep pace with the rising demand, thereby constraining growth potential and the country’s competitiveness.

“The current generation shortfall is close to 40 per cent of the installed capacity and coupled with the overstressed power infrastructure results in eight to 10 hours of forced power outages. The inter-circular debt to the tune of Rs250 billion, which is nearly 40 per cent of the sector’s annual revenues, accentuates the situation,” it said.

The CPPA is a key organisation to look after contractual obligation between the government and power producers and between the producers and purchasers.

Although the power sector in Pakistan is mature enough to graduate towards formation of an independent CPPA, “a lack of thrust in political will impeded its implementation in true spirit”. Although consultants have submitted deliverables within agreed timeframes, “the weak capacity of the executing agency and political will of the water and power ministry have stalled the full establishment and operations of the CPPA”.

The ADB said that a lot apparently had been contingent in resolving major structural, technical, fiscal and governance gaps and implementing reform agenda on the part of the government: Nepra’s capacity to initiate the policy reforms that could convert the guidelines on market rules for electricity trading into formal industry regulations and solve circular debt problems had been marginal.

It said the government was also not ready to institutionalise the CPPA model because of exogenous factors like severe power shortages and emergency of ballooning circular debt.

“The creation of an effective CPPA without addressing or restructuring the past financial and fiscal deficits of the sector as well as without providing adequate safety valves to avoid such future recurrences has not been an effective exercise,” the bank said, adding that prior to CPPA creation, the government should have laid emphasis on resolving systemic, structural and fiscal constraints in the sector that had led to circular debt.

On its part, the ADB has learnt the lesson that experiences in one market cannot be directly replicated into another. A thorough plan based on ground realities is critical for success of any new institutional arrangement, particularly of the already challenged power sector.

The report said the ADB should not allow its international consultants to avoid travelling to Pakistan on security excuses.

For the electricity traiffs the limit is beyond the skys. What new comes in is differentiated power tariff to be implemented from September 1. The Tribune gives the details:

The federal government has introduced differentiated tariffs for electricity consumers, to be implemented on bills sent after September 1.

Based on time-of-use metering, the move would translate into a reduction from 4 paisa to 48 paisa per kilowatt hour (p/kWh) for different consumer categories.

According to a notification, the current tariffs will be maintained for peak hours while the reduction will be applicable on off-peak hours for residential, commercial, industrial and bulk users.

The reductions in off-peak tariffs are as follows: 48 paisa per kWh for residential, 24 paisa per kWh for commercial, 10 paisa per kWh for B1 and 24 paisa per kWh for B2 industrial consumers. For bulk consumers, the reduction is four paisa per kWh and 14 paisa per kWh for C-1B and C-1C categories respectively. For street lighting, the reduction is 29 paisa per kWh.

Will this reduction matter much for the consumers?

The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) allowed on Tuesday a 26 paisa per unit increase in power tariff for consumers of nine distribution companies of Wapda from August 31 on account of monthly fuel cost adjustment.

A Nepra official told Dawn that power companies had sought an increase of 52 paisa per unit under the fuel adjustment formula for July.

But the power regulator allowed an increase 26 paisa and turned down the rest sought on account of system losses, late payments and overall circular debt.

The official said that Nepra had sent its determination to the federal government for notification. The new tariff will be recovered from consumers in the next billing month. The new tariff will not apply to KESC whose fuel-based tariff adjustment will be made separately.

With the latest increase, the tariff will see a cumulative surge of about Rs1.76 per unit in three months — May, June and July — raising the total per unit cost to about Rs4 per unit.

Last month, Nepra allowed a 64 paisa per unit increase and in June the government separately increased base tariff for all consumers, including KESC, by 7.6 per cent or 50 paisa per unit under an agreement with the IMF. Separately, Nepra increased 52 paisa per unit as monthly fuel cost adjustment for June.

Since March last year the government has increased tariff by about 80 per cent.

via DAWN.COM

The government is facing difficulties in unloading oil consignments from ships because of port congestion and infrastructure limitations, resulting in supply shortages in flood affected areas of Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Northern parts of the country.

Sources in the petroleum ministry told Dawn on Monday that the country’s oil consumption had dropped by about 50 per cent after the recent floods as transport activities had substantially slumped because of damage caused to the road infrastructure.

They said the stocks of petroleum products diesel, furnace oil and petrol were enough for more than 28 days of the country’s usual requirement but transportation problems were resulting in short supplies in many parts of the country, particularly in Sindh and Gilgit-Baltistan.

A senior government official said that because of supply disruptions, there were reports of overcharging and artificial shortage by the private petroleum dealers in many areas where stocks were more than enough for the local consumption.

He said the petroleum ministry issued a directive on Monday to the provincial governments and Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) to take note of the situation and conduct raids on petrol pumps to ensure smooth sales and sufficient stocks of petroleum products.

He said the provincial governments and Ogra had also been asked to seal premises and impose fines on dealers who were engaged in short supplies or overcharging customers.

The sources said at least four ships loaded with furnace oil petrol and diesel were waiting for unloading at the Karachi port.

He said a number of locations along the Indus Highway in Sindh including Shikarpur, Kashmore and Jacobabad could not be supplied with petroleum products because of heavy floods and inundation of roads and other infrastructure facilities.

Likewise, oil supplies in Gilgit-Baltistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were also facing shortages of petroleum products due to heavy damages to roads, bridges and allied transport network. They said the government initially considered to airlift petroleum products in these areas but was now finding it difficult to access such locations even through helicopters.

[via DAWN News]

• Pakistan Telecom companies contribute Rs 238.5m for flood victims: Mobilink, PTCL, Telenor .. http://bit.ly/9RI7Gp #
• Flood disaster in Pakistan is WORSE than the tsunami, 2005 Pakistan earthquake & Haiti earthquake : UN spokesman #

As reported by Stanford News, a new solar energy conversion process discovered by Stanford engineers could revamp solar power production. This
process simultaneously combines the light and heat of solar radiation to generate electricity could offer more than double the efficiency of existing solar cell technology, say the Stanford engineers who discovered it and proved that it works. The process, called “photon enhanced thermionic emission,” or PETE, could reduce the costs of solar energy production enough for it to compete with oil as an energy source.

In our last post on the Synthetic Natural Gas (SNG); we discussed that LPG when mixed with air in right proportion, gives a perfect replacement for Natural Gas. While mentioning, the potential opportunities SNG can provide we said that Industries can use it as an alternate/back-up gas during the Natural Gas (NG) shutdown or curtailments times. In this post we shall discuss the importance of this alternate gas for industries and its need in the coming times.

In Pakistan, NG crisis are no different than energy crisis. Earlier we had NG shutdown hours/days only in winters, now we even have them in summers. With this happening it is easily predicted that in coming times or not thinking of far in the coming winters the NG shortage is going to get worst.

Managing Director Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC), Dr Faiz Ullah Abbasi, has affirmed this while addressing a recent business gathering. He has said the at the problems regarding the supply of gas in the coming winter would become more serious as compared to the last year, as the demand and supply gap has started to widen.

On the other side the oil and gas sector has also fell victim to the recent floods. The Business Recorder article “Gas loadshedding crisis to further worsen ” gives more details.

The gas load shedding crisis is going to further worsen on account of 375 MMCFD gas suspension from country’s largest Qadirpur gas field because of shutdown of compressors of Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited (SNGPL) due to flood. While addressing a press conference, Federal Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Syed Naveed Qamar claimed that country had enough stock of fuel oil to meet its requirements.

“All sectors excluding domestic consumers will face more gas load shedding due to suspension of gas supply from Qadirpur gas field in SNGPL system,” Qamar said adding that effort would be made to provide maximum gas supply to power sector to avert power shortage. Minister also ruled out that flood water had entered Qadirpur gas field.

“SNGPL would devise a new gas load shedding plan for all sectors excluding domestic consumers,” Minister maintained.

More: http://www.brecorder.com/index.php?id=1090459&currPageNo=1&query=&search=&term=&supDate=

Such a situation is very alarming for all industrial sectors which are dependent on the NG supply. The shutdown will greatly affect their production process, making it slow or even reducing their full production capacity.

As SNG can be used interchangeably with NG it makes a powerful tool to strategically manage winter Natural Gas shortage or NG load shedding. The industrial sector must seriously consider opting for SNG as their can be no other permanent alternative source/back-up to natural gas.

• Exxon and Shell quarterly profits soar: The two biggest nongovernment-companies. http://bit.ly/crSsD4 (via @lowelectricbill) #