MPs concerned over closure of Mangla's generation units.

Byline: Fawad Yousafzai

ISLAMABAD -- A parliamentary committee has showed concern over the closure of some of Mangla's generation units and observed that the maintenance of units should not come in the peak summer power usage time.

The Senate standing committee that met with Senator Fida Muhammad in chair was informed by the power division that the transmission and distribution capacity will be increased to 26000MW next year.

In ongoing summer average 21000 MW electricity was transmitted by the system with the highest transmission load of 23000 MW and it will be further increased to 26000 MW next summer, said secretary power division Irfan Ali while briefing the Senate Standing Committee on Power here.

The committee discussed the installed and peak season generation of hydroelectricity along with details of all power stations in the country.

The committee was informed that the total hydle WAPDA installed capacity is 9,387 MW and IPPs hydle capacity is 382 MW. The average daily hydle generation was told to be 5,191MW of WAPDA and 252MW of IPPs with maximum generation reaching 5,732 MW and 302 MW respectively. The committee was told that three generation units of Mangla are under maintenance which is affecting power generation from the units. The Committee was surprised to know that generation units of Mangla Power Generation system has been out of order for last six months and the country is losing around 400-500 MW of power. Senator Nauman Wazir Khattak expressed concern over the closure of Mangla generation units. Members of the committee observed that the units that produce cheapest electricity should be running at highest possible efficiency and the scheduled maintenance...