Contrary to the prime minister’s orders for not carrying out unscheduled load shedding, Pakistan Electric Power Company (PEPCO) started unscheduled load shedding on Thursday. Outages have been increased from six to 10 hours in the country. The citizens have appealed the government end load shedding during the night. The prime minister, during his visit to Lahore three weeks ago, announced that he had instructed the authorities for not carrying out unscheduled load shedding. However, PEPCO turned a deaf ear to the orders and is carrying out unscheduled load shedding. The electricity on Wednesday night was shut at 11pm in Township, Green Town and Johar Town unscheduled and was restored after an hour.
Similarly, almost all parts of the city are experiencing six hours of power closures. In rural areas, the duration of load shedding has touched 10 hours. According to sources, gas supplies to certain power plants had decreased, which was causing a decline in electricity’s production. Unscheduled load shedding irked the consumers, who said that it had become difficult for them to sleep during the night. They said that anti-mosquito machines did not work without electricity. “The electricity shuts down a number of times during the night and it becomes difficult to sleep,” said a housewife, Fareeha Majeed, demanding that PEPCO should end unscheduled load shedding. Another citizen, Hussain Ahsan, also expressed similar concerns. An official at Green Town grid station said that duration of load shedding had increased in last one day. He admitted that unscheduled load shedding was also being carried out besides scheduled power cuts. Meanwhile, the power shortfall remained 3,404MW, generation was recoded at 13,284MW while demand surged to 16,688MW.
