Power outages multiply woes of domestic consumers

Prolonged power outages have multiplied the woes of domestic consumers, particularly the weakest segments of society, including patients, children and students, besides causing mental distress and nervous breakdowns among old age citizens.
The power deficit has touched the abnormal level, triggering to 3000 MW per day and further gap in demand and the Pakistan Electric Power Company (Pepco) is fearing supply. Reports of attacks on the offices Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) are being received from different parts of the city.
It may be noted that half of the city plunged into darkness on Thursday night with the breaking down of about two dozen grid stations, leading to a crisis like situation. Many patients and children spent sleepless night while cursing the Pepco authorities. Also, heavy fluctuation was reported in many areas of the city, particularly those situated at the outskirts of the city.
The residents of these areas told Business Recorder that the local SDOs and XENs put their cell phones off, leaving the domestic consumers into lurch for the whole night. According to Pepco sources, the load growth in the preceding years has been unprecedented, especially in the last five years. The statistics recorded below substantiate this contention.
According to the Pepco officials, the load build-up in the above situation is due to installation of new connections, reconnection of disconnected premises and extension of load in the existing connections. Apart from this, they added, thousands of MW undeclared load by the consumers has been added to the system, which is the major cause of over loading of power supply network.
It may be noted that the Pepco has installed 608,780 connections in the last 10 months.
Company-wise and tariff wise details are enumerated as under:
The Pepco authorities are blaming the Musharraf regime for not acting prudently on realising the supply and demand gap by 2008.
According to former Chairman of Wapda Tariq Hameed, some 22 presentations were made to the then prime minister Shaukat Aziz on rising electricity shortage, seeking permission for installation of new power plants in public sector.
But Shaukat Aziz turned down all presentations on the pretext that only private sector, and not the public sector, would invest in power generation, an unwise approach that led to present unimaginable loadshedding, he said.
The Pepco authorities are pointing out that 19 new power plants with a capacity of 3500 MW would be added to the system by December 2009 to end the loadshedding. But the consumers are doubtful on these claims, a situation leading to further depression and confusion.
Unfortunately, neither the government nor the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz)-led proactive opposition is giving patient hearing to the miseries of general public. They have focused on war against Taliban in Swat and adjacent areas, while leaving the general public at the mercy of terrorism and loadshedding. According to the Pepco spokesman, the hydroelectric generation is the most facilitating sector, which is pumping in more MWs than all other power plants. The Pepco thermal plants are functioning to the optimal level of their efficiency and making useful contribution. The IPPs are reinforcing the generation capability amiably. Rental powerhouses are also sharing up to their potential.
The Pepco has also appealed to the consumers to do away with wasteful consumption with switching off extra lights, containing use of A.Cs, replacing bulbs/tubelight with energy savers. Also, the Pepco urged the consumers to desist from using electrical appliances like washing machines, Irons, computers and printers etc. during peak load hours between 2000 and 2400 hours. It will afford relief to the system.

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Companies     Domestic      Commercial      Industrial      Tube well        Other        Total

                                                             Agri   W.S.S.

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LESCO            96867           10821           2186        2206     0          7       112087

GEPCO            55971            6761           2158        1501    69         10        66470

FESCO           108460            9396           1678        1884    43         86       121547

IESCO            67820            8712            394         230     0         35        77191

MEPCO           133919            9671           2282        2301    89         58       148320

PUNJAB          463037           45361           8698        8122   201        196       525615

PESCO            43605            4128            259         227     0          8        48227

TESCO               36              21              0          20     0          0           77

HESCO            19108            2860            400         606     0          2        22976

QESCO             9474            2232             56          78    23         22        11885

TOTAL           535260            54602         9413         9053   224        228       608780

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1998-99        4.2%        1999-2000        1.1%        2000-2001        4.6%

2001-2002        4%        2002-2003       3.72%        2003-2004        5.7%

2004-2005      8.6%        2005-2006        9.8%        2006-2007        9.8%

2007-2008      7.5%        2008-2009        8.3%

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