By Zeeshan Yousafzai
ISLAMABAD – The government has paid a staggering Rs1,200 billion to 24 Independent Power Producers (IPPs) in the last 10 years during which they didn't produce a single unit.
The capacity payments made to the IPPs have drained the public resources. According to the agreements, the payments have to be made whether these companies or individuals produce electricity or not.
Information gleaned by Dunya News revealed that these 24 power plants had been generating electricity from RLNG and furnace oil.
Read More: Gohar Ejaz urges Leghari to make IPP payment record public
A sum of Rs488 billion has been paid to the 11 gas and RLNG plants operational under the 1994 and 2004 power policies.
Meanwhile, Rs758 billion have been given to 13 power plants functioning on furnace oil.
The power project agreement of the two furnace oil-run IPPs has ended while the remaining are still active. Sources said only two power plants were being run on merit.
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Also, the heat rate of the IPPs is high while the plant filter rate is excessively low showing the dismal performance by the power producers over the years.
Many technical problems have also surfaced over the years in these power plants. The Kot Addu plant reported technical faults 4,788 times, the Hub power plant reported faults 369 times and Habibullah power plant reported problems for almost 837 times.