Fed cabinet body okays plan to shut down underperforming power plants

ISLAMABAD: A federal cabinet committee headed by Planning and Development Minister Asad Umar on Thursday approved a plan to shut down underperforming power plants across the country, ARY NEWS reported.

According to details, the federal cabinet committee on energy mulled over a suggestion to shut down power plants performing below par and decided that they would be closed down in a phase-wise manner.

The power division was directed to provide a schedule to close down the proposed electricity generation units besides also devising a plan to utilize human resource at these installations in a transparent and efficient way.

The committee also mulled over to waive-off 66 percent of commitment charges on three RLNG power plants. The cabinet body also directed the power and gas sector to ensure uninterrupted supply of fuel to the plants across the country.

It is pertinent to mention here that in November 2019, Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Petroleum Nadeem Babar said that the circular debt of power sector will be ended in December 2020, whereas, the government has decided to shut old power plants came to its retirement period.

Nadeem Babar made the statement while briefing the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Privatisation during a session held under the chair of Syed Mustafa Mahmud.

Babar apprised NA body that the transmission of 19,000 megawatts electricity was made in July 2018 while more than 4,000 MW power transmitted in the previous year. He said that the federal government will include subsidy to the power sector in its budget.