Owing to the closure of canals because of the de-silting work can decrease the power generation and the residents of the capital city and its adjoining areas will also have to face the brunt in the form of daily power outages of more than eight hours. In this regard, the Islamabad Electric Supply Company (IESCO) has planned to implement its new power outages plan from Today (Tuesday), Pakistan Today learnt on Monday.
A senior IESCO official, seeking anonymity, told Pakistan Today that in order to maintain the frequency level even after the closure of canals, the IESCO has planned a new schedule for power loadshedding under which the electricity would remain suspended for more than six hours in urban areas while eight hours in rural areas of Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT).
The economy analysts, on the other hand, are of the view that since the country has already been facing an electricity shortfall of over 10,000 megawatt, the closure of canal, which started from December 22, would result spike the shortfall of over 4,000 megawatts. They fear that now the residents will have to face outages of more than ten hours daily. They observed that the government would have to go through another critical time during the next three to four months due to prevailing power crisis.
The source, however, confided to this scribe that though the closure of canals has been a routine during winter, it would be the IESCO’s priority to minimise the outages duration in the federal capital, since majority of politically affluent people including rulers live there.
He informed this scribe that the outages duration might increase with the power shortfall and that the natural gas outages could also affect the generation capacity. Once without gas, the IESCO would have to use furnace oil to run power generators, which he said was an expensive commodity.
He said the a summary for the approval of funds to buy fuel for running IESCO power plants was still awaiting the authorities’ nod.
Meanwhile, the citizens have already been facing long hours of outages for the last two days and people are facing immense problems because of that. “Earlier we were suffering because of gas outages, but now these repeated power cuts have made our life more miserable,” said Duad Zafar, angry resident.