'Undeclared load-shedding due to 500 mw shortfall'

There is an undeclared load-shedding of electricity in the country because of 500 megawatt shortfall in the production and supply of electricity, said the Chairman of National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) Lieutenant General (retired) Saeeduzzafar here on Monday.
In an interview, he said that all hydel and thermal power stations are producing 17,900 megawatts electricity while the demand is 23,200 megawatts, which has caused present unofficial load-shedding.
He said the production of electricity by hydel power stations has been reduced by 50 percent due to shortage of water in Tarbela and Mangla dams
General Saeeduzafar said that it was the cheaper electricity produced by hydel stations which was balancing the cost of electricity generated by thermal stations. He said that cost of oil has escalated in the international market and the independent power producers (IPPs) have put up additional demand of furnace oil used by them to produce electricity.
He said that although the government is providing huge subsidy on import of oil, as in case of fertilisers and wheat, yet the government also has its financial constraints.
The Nepra chief said that there was no planning during the 1990s to produce electricity from water resources which was much cheaper than thermal power. Pakistan has the potential to produce 70 percent electricity of its requirements by hydel stations and 30 percent by thermal stations whereas the actual production is vice versa, he said.
He said that Ghazi Barotha power station has the capacity to produce 1415 megawatt electricity but there are no transmission lines for its transmission downward from Lahore.
He said that the present government has prepared plans to set up small hydel power stations and utilise all other energy sources including solar to produce up to 27,000 megawatt electricity but for this financial resources are need which are not easily available.
He said despite all these hurdles and difficulties, it is the endeavour of the government to supply cheap electricity to domestic, commercial, agricultural and industrial consumers especially in view of the coming WTO regime to make Pakistani goods competitive in the international market.