Rampant load shedding or what is being termed as 'forced closure' has hit the country again, despite the promises made by the Managing Director (MD), Pakistan Electric Power Company (Pepco), before being appointed to the post that the company would observe strict schedule for the purpose.
The newly appointed Pepco MD, Tahir Basharat Cheema had himself pointed out in his May 7 media briefing that his appointment as MD Pepco was conditioned to the end of unscheduled outages. He had further mentioned in his media briefing that Pepco has overcome the phenomenon of unscheduled suspension of power supply and there would be only scheduled load shedding instead across the country.
However, all these tall claims are proved to be wrong with the rise in temperature in the country and the Pepco has no option, but to get back to prolonged outages with the rise in mercury level. Three major cities of Punjab, Lahore, Gujranwala and Faisalabad recorded a load increase of 700 MW on May 19, triggering repeated tripping on all grids.
The city of Lahore alone registered a load increase of 400 MW due to high usage of air conditioners in wee hours. Majority of the consumers ignored Pepco's campaign of setting thermostat on 36 degree, appearing on all leading dailies repeatedly and set it at 16 degree to compete the rising pressure of heat.
This sudden increase in temperature has put Pepco into an awkward situation, as it has increased the load shedding period from four-six hours to eight-ten hours in 30 percent areas of the country. Further, it has deprived the textile sector from load shedding exemption, pushing more units to the edge of closures.
Besides, Pepco has also directed the industrial sectors to bring the load 15 percent down to meet the domestic demand with rise in temperature. There are, however, a few independent circles pinpointing that the Pepco could not be blamed for the phenomenon and the Indus Regulatory System Authority (IRSA) was equally responsible for the situation.
Irsa, according to these circles, was not releasing water in full capacity yet, hampering Pepco's hydel generation capacity. Whatsoever may be the reason, the reoccurrence of outages has put the life of many commoners into a miserable state. Further, the situation is getting worst in hospitals and schools. Patients are unable to get a peaceful sleep and spent their nights on sofas waiting for the electricity to return.
It may be noted that Pepco chief has repeatedly being pointing out that about 3500 MW energy will be added to the system with the installation of 19 plants by December 2009. According to him, two new plants with 450 MW generation capacity will be added to the system during the current month followed by another two rental power plants of 150 MW and 200 MW respectively, besides 200 MW IPP plant will also be operational next month.
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