With an increase in the power shortfall, the city experienced unscheduled power closures of six to nine hours on Tuesday. In many areas, electricity was closed for one hour after every two hours. According to the Pakistan Electric Power Company (PEPCO), power generation remained 13,821 MW while the electricity demand touched 17,771 MW, thus shortfall stood at 3,950 MW.
The hydroelectric power generation remained 5,352MW; thermal production stood at 1,801 MW while independent power producers (IPPs) produced 6,569 MW of electricity. Urban areas experienced six hours of load shedding while the city suburbs had to suffer eight to nine hours of power closures.
Routine life was disturbed with some areas experiencing water shortages as well. The Lahore Electric Supply Company (LESCO) sources said that unscheduled load shedding was being carried out in the city for the last two days. They said that LESCO was ‘helpless’ in controlling or stopping unscheduled load shedding, as it was being carried out by the National Control Centre (NCC).
“The NCC just switches off a grid station directly and no one can stop them,” said an official of LESCO, adding if NCC did not switch off grid stations, there could be heavy losses to grid stations. He said that owing to increasing heat, power consumption had increased over the last two days, which caused load shedding.
The consumers criticized PEPCO for failing to control the power shortfall and overcoming load shedding. “I pay Rs 4,500-5,000 in electricity bills but in return I get power suspension of six hours daily,” lamented a citizen, Sagheer Ahmed, adding that it had become impossible to sleep at night because of power outages.
The shopkeepers said that their sales had decreased, while the cost of doing business had increased owing to load shedding. “I have to spend extra money on petrol for running generators,” said a businessman, Ghulam Hussain.