The Senate’s Committee on Power was Thursday briefed that Iran had stopped transmission of 80MW electricity to the coastal areas of Pakistan, affecting the supply on the Makran coast, including Gwadar, Panjgur and Pasni. Officials of the Power Division said that the heatwave and subsequent load shedding in Iran had compelled it to stop exporting electricity to other countries. The officials told the committee that the Karachi-Electric (KE) was being provided 650MW of electricity and that all matters between the KE and the federal government had been settled. “Further issues will be discussed when Shanghai Cooperation takes over from the Abraaj Group.” Present at the meeting chaired by Senator Fida Muhammaed, Sukkur Electric Power Company (SEPCO) officials briefed the committee on power theft situation in the area. Of the total 494 feeders of the distribution company, line losses in around 300 feeders were over 80 percent,” they said. They said that Rangers personnel had been employed to prevent theft and that they would be provided compensation for their services. They claimed that they had to reach out to the Rangers after police action remained ineffective, adding that the area under the power company’s domain was facing 12 hours of load shedding. It was told that the losses from Lakhra Coal Power project had reached Rs 12 billion and that it was still running in losses, amounting to approximately Rs 400 million a year. Published in Daily Times, August 3rd 2018.