Loadshedding resumption hitting consumers hard

Resumption of massive load shedding has hit the electricity consumers, right from domestic to commercial and industrial consumers. An abnormal rise in mercury has also negated the Pakistan Electric Power Company (Pepco) forecast on availability of electricity.
The Pepco power forecast, pasted on the official Pepco website, suggests that the Pepco would be in a surplus position by late November 2009 based on power generation and load data/demand of last 10 years and the generation of projects in pipeline.
Interestingly, the Pepco graph indicates that the difference between the demand and supply of electricity is not more than few hundred megawatts but the press reports are suggesting that the gap has widened to 4000 MW at present. It may be noted that such a huge difference in demand and supply was recorded during the peak summer season.
High state of emergency can be judged from the fact that the Prime Minister himself made a statement on the flour of the House on Friday, stated that if power crisis could be resolved with the change of government, we are ready for this.
Addressing the Senate session, Gilani said if power crisis could be resolve by changing the minister, we are ready for this but the new minister will also face the same crisis. He asked the political parties to extend co-operation to resolve the energy crisis.
Government will try to end load shedding till December and if could happen after December, it will be fault of the government. He said resolution of power crisis is government's top priority. Gilani said he is taking responsibility of resolution of crisis. Situation started improving in November. India is facing shortfall of 40,000 megawatt but they never debate on it.
He said there is short-term, medium-term and long-term solution to resolve the energy crisis. Instead of adopting mid or long-term measures as these were time consuming, the government went for short-term solution to give immediate relief to the people as well as the industries.
"More or less there wouldn't be load shedding in the coming days," he said adding the whole nation is concerned about the load-shedding but the gap between the demand and supply would reduce in winter. He said more Independent Power Producers (IPPs) are in pipeline, which would help meet the energy demand of the country.
He reiterated the government's commitment to utilise all available resources to overcome the power crisis and to give immediate relief to the people. Gilani said, after coming into power the government had to make some difficult decisions to steer country out of economic recession. "Now, we are working on the consensus policies that may continue even after our government. Change of policies hamper economic growth and we would resolve this issue through consensus policies."