All much-touted calls to end load-shedding appear to have gone out of light as Karachi braces itself for a power shortfall of around 600 megawatts (MW) during the peak summer period.
The reported delay in many of the power utility, K-Electric’s generation projects, largely due to an unprecedented setback in the finalisation of its multi-year tariff, is being said to bring about this failure.
K-Electric awaits a final nod on its request to the power ministry for an additional supply of 300 MW from the national grid to bridge the anticipated supply shortfall. It has been learnt that a number of projects due to online by now in Karachi have been delayed because of circumstances out of KE’s control. Most noticeable among these is the 900MW BQPS-III, which would have been enough to fulfil additional demand. As per industry experts, the generation project timeline had been affected because the multi-year tariff, determined by NEPRA, took much longer than anticipated, and was not even in line with what had been required to stimulate further investment in generation, transmission and distribution.