ISLAMABAD – With the lingering domestic gas shortages and higher international oil prices, the country’s electricity generation is likely to face a deficit of more than 5,000 megawatts (MW) in summers. An official source at the Ministry of Water and Power said the shortage of electricity was expected to increase significantly with the beginning of hot weather from April as the generation units were already facing a shortage of gas and lacked financial resources to purchase the high-priced furnace oil.
Because of the gas shortage, the 4,585MW installed capacity of public sector GENCOs decreased to 3,525MW, said the source, adding that an allocation of new gas reservoirs for power generation was needed along with the acceleration of independent power plants (IPPs) and rehabilitation of GENCOs. The optimum hydel generation of 6,500MW was only possible by mid-May when the snows melted and the water-flow in the rivers increased, but there would be a corresponding increase in the energy consumption by that time, he said.
