Lahoris, already tortured by severe load shedding, had to face another bad day on Monday when seven grid stations of the city tripped and more than half of the city plunged into darkness.
Lahore Electric Supply Company (LESCO) sources said that the grid stations developed a technical problem and tripped but the LESCO Public Relations Department said that the grid stations were closed due to overload. Areas of Township, Johar Town, WAPDA Town, Green Town, Ghaziabad, Garden Town, Faisal Town, Allama Iqbal Town, Shahdara, Rehmanpura and Shalimar faced continuous outages. There were unscheduled closures during the whole day and citizens suffered badly but in the evening, seven grid stations including Kot Lakhpat, Ghazi Road, WAPDA Town, Badami Bagh, Kasur and Khuddian tripped and electricity was suspended.
LESCO Public Relations Additional Director Javed Khan said that grid stations were closed due to overload. When asked that there has been a pleasant change in the weather and usage of air conditioners decreased, he said that the shortfall has increased and as a result, grid stations were closed. Javed said that supplies were restored as soon as load on transmission lines decreased.
500-KV double circuit transmission line trips: A 500-KV double circuit transmission line, Hubco-Jamshoro, tripped due to humidity on Sunday night resulting in an increase in load shedding.
Every time, the Pakistan Electric Power Company (PEPCO) has an excuse for load shedding. If it is hot weather, then PEPCO says power outages are due to excessive load on the system and if there is pleasant weather, then excuse of humidity is given. On the ground, PEPCO has failed to run the transmission and distribution system of electricity in the country. On Monday, load shedding increased in every part of the country. Although the weather changed on Sunday and power consumption decreased but even then consumers had to face long hours of outages. PEPCO said that load shedding increased due to a problem in 500-KV transmission lines. It claimed that the system had to suffer 1,200MW shortfall after a problem in the Hubco-Jamshoro line. The company said that the line would be repaired by Monday afternoon. Shortfall remained 4,445MW, as demand stood at 18,114MW and generation remained 13,669MW. There was no relief for consumers and they had to face 8 to 10 hours of power closures.
