The power shortfall continues to plague the country as electricity shortfall has risen to 7,000 megawatts (MW) that resulted in increase in unannounced load shedding massive protests across the country.
Energy management cell of Pepco said that PSO has reduced fuel supply to IPPs and power houses due to which electricity is being generated around 10,000 MW while demand has increased to 17,000 MW.
PEPCO officials said that the required fuel and gas were not being provided to power houses, therefore, the generation of electricity had reduced, adding that PEPCO had informed the government that if the current power crisis was not resolved, the power system would be rendered paralyzed in the next few days.
They said more than 300 grid stations across the county had been affected due to the shortage of fuel, as a result the grid stations tripped after every 15 minutes.
In this regard, chairman IPPs Abdullah Yousaf told that government is not taking concrete steps regarding payments to IPPs in the country which are producing more than 700 megawatt electricity. He said that power capacity of IPPs can be enhanced by timely payments from the government and disbursement of their outstanding dues. He said that we had couple of meetings with the officials of the ministry of water and power but ministry does not seem interested to solve the issue. Abdullah Yousaf said that government is taking this issue lightly and this attitude would barred foreign investors to invest here in the country.
Energy experts termed the whole situation a complete failure of the government by saying that earlier government should take concrete steps to control the energy giant of the country.
A H Nayyar energy expert talking to Online said that so far government has not able to eliminate the circular debt in the country which is a major factor of power shortfall in the country. He said that government should utilized funds to reduced circular debt rather to spend it for purchase rental power plants. He said that government should take steps to provide cheap fuel in the country to facilitate power producers in the country.
Nayyar said that following to power requirements in the country power houses should have the installed capacity of thirty thousand megawatt which is unfortunately stands at twenty thousand megawatt which is too low.
It is too pertinent here that owing to the gap between demand and supply of electricity urban areas in the country are being subjected to power cuts of up to 18 hours a day, while 20 hours of load shedding is being carried out in rural areas. People from different walks of life are facing problems due to hour’s long load shedding in scorching heat.
Shortfall increased to 7,000 MW in the country
