Gap between demand and supply of electricity is likely to be bridged next week with some positive development including arrival of furnace oil ship at Karachi port, improvement in hydel generation and supply of oil from Saudi Arabia on deferred payment.
According to the sources, sending of Hina Rabbani Khar, State Minister for Foreign Affairs by government has proved fruitful and positive outcome is likely to take place soon.
It may be noted that the country witnessed worst-ever spell of load-shedding during the outgoing week, touching maximum height of 6,000MW officially. Unofficial sources are of the view that gap between demand and supply had touched 7,500MW in actual. Resultantly, power supply to industrial consumers is in doldrums, putting the production pace in factories at halt. Especially the textile industry, which is supposed to be the mainstay of economy, is in deep trouble.
Over 100 textile units have closed down due to non-supply of electricity and gas. Rising uncertainty in the textile sector is resulting into massive unemployment, bearing the burden of some 3.5 million labourers in the country. Unprecedented inflationary pressure is adding fuel to the fire, putting many unemployed labourers much below the poverty line.
Meanwhile, electricity shortfall in the country on Saturday stood at 3,881 MW as the total power generation was recorded as 12,259 MW against the demand of 16,140 MW during the last 24 hours. According to the brief on daily power generation and load-management position, hydel generation stood at 4,181 MW, Wapda thermal 1,806 MW, IPPs 6,210 MW and Rental 62 MW.
As many as 710 MW was supplied to Karachi Electric Supply Company, the report further said. The rising shortfall has forced outages of power for long duration in different cities and localities. The consumers have called for taking concrete steps to improve generation capacity to overcome load-shedding issue.
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