Mismanagement, fuel shortage blamed for outages

Fuel shortages caused by inadequate supply arrangements and forced outages are leading to serious power supply constraints as consumers suffer in extremely humid conditions across the country.

A senior official of the Power Division conceded that power companies had been compelled by unavoidable circumstances to apply forced power cuts ranging between 1,000MW and 2,000MW in peak hours. This does not include revenue-based load shedding of 2,500-4,000MW depending on how the relevant authorities are technically able to park shortages.

“We are not getting LNG (liquefied natural gas) supplies against firm demand and furnace oil supplies are not sufficient to run available power plants,” the official said.

The management is such that LNG tenders for two-vessel deliveries in the second and third weeks of July were canceled at the rate of $11.77 and $11.66 per MMBTU (million British thermal units) and one of them was given to the same party after four days at $12.78 per MMBTU and one vessel was missed altogether.