PEPCO is lazy, deaf, and electricity-less

The government remained least bothered about paying the bills of the Independent Power Producers and oil suppliers and the menace of load shedding continue haunting the consumers on Saturday. Meanwhile protests were also held against the unannounced power outages.
Punjab witnessed long hours of load shedding spells, thus paralysing routine life completely. The urban areas faced 10-12 hours of outages while rural areas suffered more than 16 hours of closures.
The sources said despite long hours of load shedding during the last 10 days, Pakistan Electric Power Company remained least bothered and did not make any effort to reduce load shedding. PEPCO had not even asked the government for clearing the dues of oil suppliers and IPPs, the sources said, adding that the intensity of outages would remain the same if at least Rs 10-15 billion were not released immediately. “The electricity demand has not increased but even then the load shedding has crossed 10 hours duration in a day and it is only due to non-payments to IPPs,” the sources said, adding that the PEPCO officials had also not compelled the government for releasing money. They said the shortfall remained more than 5,500MW and it could increase in the coming days when there will be increase in power consumption. “The temperature is increasing with every passing day and the power demand would increase and as a result the shortfall would go up and also the outages.”
Electricity remained suspended for more than two hours in one go in all parts of the city. The power suspension started in the early morning and continued till late at night. Hardly, there was electricity in any area for more than one hour. The situation in rural areas remained worst, as power was closed for more than six hours in one go and there was closure of more than 16 hours in one day thus making it impossible for the consumers to function normally.