LAHORE – Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) has stopped gas supplies to the CNG stations and the industrial sector to facilitate domestic users, but consistent power and gas outages faced by domestic consumers continued on Saturday. Pakistan Electric Power Company (PEPCO)’s claim of controlling the situation also stood falsified, as there has been no respite in power closures.
Citizens lived through another day with limited gas and electricity, as there was eight to ten hours of load shedding, while gas remained suspended in majority of the areas on Saturday. The electricity shortfall in the national grid crossed 3,000 MW. PEPCO said electricity demand touched 11, 706 MW while generation remained 8,776 MW.
The hydel generation remained 1,049 MW, thermal 1,287 MW, IPPs 6,378 MW and RPPs 62 MW. The low gas pressure and unscheduled load shedding in all areas remained consistent. The residents of Green Town, Township, Shahdra, Gulberg, Thoker Niaz Beg, Faisal Town and Johar Town among many others faced a cold and periodically dark day. There have also been protests in Faisalabad over the gas suspension for the domestic users.
WE ARE DOING OUR BEST: SNGPL Managing Director Rasheed Lone said, “The company is facing around 650 mmdcf shortages, and situation will improve by February 15. There have been sharp increase in gas consumption owing to severe cold and the company is doing its best to counter the situation.” He said supplies to CNG stations and the industrial sector have been halted to accommodate domestic users.
He requested the domestic gas consumers not to use gas heaters, use geysers from 6 am to 10 am, and cook from 6:30 to 8:30 in the morning and to observe the same timings in the evening. He, keeping in mind the safety of the consumers, requested that all gas appliances should be turned off after use and to avoid any incident, all main gas levers should also be turned off before going to bed.
NOT ENOUGH: The domestic users said they could not prepare meals owing to low gas pressure, plus the electricity outages continued unbridled as well. Lahore Electric Supply Company has not given a load shedding schedule and halts the electric supply whenever they felt like, alleged a jeweller, Irfan Ahmed. He said often outages were experienced during working hours and the traders were in agony.
