Pepco begins up to 16-hour loadshedding

As the short fall between supply and demand increased to 5000MW on Sunday, the Pakistan Electric Power Company (Pepco) started unscheduled 10 hours daily electricity shut down in the cities and 14-16 hours in the rural areas.
Pepco sources told Business Recorder that power generation has fallen to 8,000MW against the demand of 1300MW across the country. The hydel power units at Tarbela, Mangla, Ghazi Barotha etc are contributing 4,500MW electricity whereas thermal powerhouses have brought down their power generation to 3,500MW. The electricity distribution companies including Lesco are meeting the shortfall by prolonged load shedding in their respective service areas.
Sources said that the Independent Power Producers (IPPs) have reduced their production to 3,500MW from their capacity of over 10000MW due to non- payment of their dues in billions of rupees.
Sources in Wapda said that Irsa is discharging 60,000 cusecs water from the Tarbela dam and 35,000 cusecs from the Mangla dam to produce maximum 4,500MW hydel electricity in winter as the government was facing the crippling problem of circular debt with regard to payment to IPPs.
It may be recalled that the Minister for Water and Power Naveed Qamar had assured the National Assembly earlier this month that load shedding would be ended across the country on February 7 after drop in line losses.
Meanwhile, the upper parts of the country including north-east Balochistan are in the grip of severe cold and the people are bracing the electricity and gas shortages with fortitude and patience.
Met Office said that weather remained cold and cloudy in most parts of the country on Sunday. However rain/snowfall occurred at isolated places of Quetta, upper Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Gilgit-Baltistan and Kashmir.
It further said that today (Monday) rain with snowfall over the hills is expected at scattered places of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, upper Punjab, Gilgit-Baltistan and Kashmir, while at isolated places in Northeast Balochistan. Cold and dry weather is expected elsewhere in the country.
It said Western disturbance is affecting upper parts of the country and likely to persist for the next 3-4 days.