The power shortfall has gone out of control resulting in 10 to 16 hours of load shedding on Saturday. There has been a significant decrease in hydel generation due to decrease in water flows from dams. At the same time, demand has surged to 18,500MW resulting in massive unscheduled load shedding. The power shortfall on Friday remained at 5,469MW with production at 13,252MW and demand 18,721MW. The present power production numbers are one of the lowest in recent days. Pakistan Electric Power Company (PEPCO) sources said that hydel generation has dropped sharply and at the same time, there has been a significant reduction by independent power producers (IPP). According to PEPCO figures, power production on Friday from hydel sources remained 4,695MW, whereas, it was 5,056MW on Thursday, which created a reduction of 361MW. Similarly, thermal production remained 1,997MW while it was 1997MW on Thursday. IPPs gave 6,488MW while on Thursday, they produced 6,898MW creating a shortfall of 410MW.
Sources said that in the coming two days, load shedding would remain the same if there was no change in the weather. “If there will be rain and the weather becomes pleasant, then power demand will decrease and burden on the system will ease otherwise the situation will get worse,” an official said adding that there were problems in some power plants and it will take a few days to repair.
Load shedding continued in the city, including its suburbs. There was continuous power failure in every part of the city. Besides, scheduled outages, there were unscheduled power closures making lives of people difficult. Power was closed for an hour after every hour and in some areas, there were closures after every 10 to 15 minutes. LESCO officials said that grid stations were closed due to intense demand. They said that with an increase in the power load, it became essential that grid stations be switched off to save transmission lines. On the other hand, citizens are witnessing worst days of the season. “I could not sleep during the whole night, as there were continuous power closures after every 15 minutes,” Johar Town resident Raza Ali said adding that power closures continued in the day as well.
