Islamabad:
Pakistan loses 2550 billion rupees per year for the flight of electricity in the country – not 500 billion rupees as some claim – the Minister of Energy Awais Leghari declared on Tuesday at the Standing Committee of the National Assembly.
The committee, chaired by Muhammad Idrees, was informed that K-Electric could now draw up to 600 megawatts (MW) from electricity from the national network, bearing its total energy availability to 2000MW.
The Minister’s statement occurred during a suggestion from the member of the Rana Sikandar Hayat committee, who urged the issuance of new connections with housing companies to stimulate consumption. “If request notices are issued, we will install the connections,” said the minister.
“Power flight is not 500 billion rupees as claims – it is 250 billion rupees per year,” added Leghari. Hayat stressed that the remaining amount was due to unpaid invoices.
Malik Anwar Taj has raised public concerns about excessive billing when the use has crossed the 200 units threshold. He demanded that the committee include this question on the agenda. “Why does the invoice point so radically for a single additional unit?” He asked.
During the committee briefing, officials said that any fault of the Jamshoro network had led to a full power failure throughout the Hyderabad electric supplies network (Hesco). They explained that the failure of the Jamshoro network has disrupted the supply of electricity to 13 cities. The minister replied that the Jamshoro grid did not go offline during the national breakdowns. “I do not remember any isolated incident in fault in Jamshoro’s grid,” he said.
However, Hesco officials argued that past incidents had indeed led to Jamshoro defects that led to generalized breakdowns. They called for the creation of a 220 kV grid alternative for Hesco, which should be connected by Matiari or Nawabshah.
The committee member, Syed Waseem Hussain, argued that the fault of Jamshoro’s grid also affected Karachi. Leghari rejected this assertion, declaring that Jamshoro’s grid “has no connection with K-Electric” and his system was separated; Therefore, “this does not affect Karachi”.
The Minister shared updates on the integration of K-Electric with the national network. K electrical managers informed the committee that the public service had established four interconnection points with the national network, with a combined capacity of more than 2,000 MW.
They said that two main network stations – the 500 kV KKI grid and the 220 kV Dhabeji grid – had been successfully energized, adding that under an interim arrangement, the KKI network was drawing up to 1,600 MW from the National Transmission and Despair Network (NTDC).
Managers also informed the committee that a new connection point was under construction between K2 / K3 and PQEPCL, linked via a 500 kV NTDC transmission line. This line should be completed at the end of July 2025. “Once fully built and integrated into the KKI network, the print capacity of K-Electric of the national network should reach around 2100 MW,” said a manager. An electricity manager K said that this increased capacity depended on regulatory approvals and the completion of technical damage.
