'Average electricity shortfall is 2,189 megawatts'

Due to reduced demand in the winter the current average shortfall of electricity in the country is 2,189 MW, Ministry of Water and Power said on Tuesday. It said that the total generation of hydel and thermal station is 7,456 MW against the demand of 9,645 MW, resulting in a shortfall of 2189 MW.
It may be added that due to closer of irrigation canals for the annual month long cleaning and desilting, hydel power units at Tarbela, Ghazi Barotha and Mangla dams are producing very little of their generation capacity of 6,400 MW electricity.
Pepco is managing the shortfall by carrying out six to eight hours load shedding in the cities and eight to 10 hours power outage in the rural areas. The company is hopeful of improvement in the power generation situation at the end of January when the canals are reopened and water is released from the dams.