LAHORE – The shortage of gas supply to certain power plants is the main reason behind an increase in the power shortfall, Pakistan Electric Power Company (PEPCO) Director General (DG) Muhammad Khalid said on Tuesday. He was speaking at a weekly press conference at the WAPDA House. The PEPCO DG said that the company was facing a shortfall of 1,423MW, as production stood at 10,263MW and demand 11,686MW. Khalid said that hydel power plants were producing 3,973MW, thermal 1,577MW, Independent Power Producers (IPP) 4,615MW and Rental Power Plants (RPP) were contributing 62MW to the national grid. Presently, Faisalabad, Hyderabad and Quetta are facing power outages of 10 to 12 hours daily.
Khalid said that load shedding of three to eight hours was being observed in Lahore.
The PEPCO DG said that the Gujranwala Electric Power Company (GEPCO), Multan Electric Power Company (MEPCO), Peshawar Electric Supply Company (PESCO) and the Islamabad Electric Supply Company (IESCO) were conducting power outages of five to six hours in urban areas and six to eight hours in rural areas. “Power plants in Kot Addu and Faisalabad were not getting proper gas causing a decrease in power production,” he said.
To a question, he said that PEPCO was given Rs 4.835 billion in 2009-10 and Rs 4.325 billion this year. Khalid said that last year, around 0.5 million electricity meters were replaced at a cost of Rs 1 billion, adding that until January, around 0.27 million electricity meters have been replaced at a cost of Rs 515 million. He said that PEPCO added fresh 11KV lines measuring 1,576 kilometres in the country and reconditioned lines measuring 970 kilometres.
Similarly, 1,011 kilometres lines of 400 volts were added in the system last year and Rs 3.4 billion were used for adding and reconditioning both lines. The PEPCO DG said that until January, PEPCO added lines measuring 1,235 kilometres and reconditioned 444 kilometres long 11 KV lines.
He said that lines spanning 532 kilometres and reconditioned lines of 400 volts measuring 307 kilometres were added at the cost of Rs 1.7 billion.
