Consumers hit hard by load shedding

The load shedding phenomenon has hit back the city both on domestic and commercial connections, with the rise in mercury. The load shedding schedule has started widening with every passing day, as a total of five to six hours at domestic front and six to eight hours at commercial/industrial front load shedding is being observed by the Pakistan Electric Power Company (Pepco).
Pepco sources told Business Recorder that depleted reserves, both at Mangla and Tarbela dams, were causing latest spell of load shedding in the country. Coupled with it, the thermal generation is also not up to the mark, they said, adding that entry of rental power plants (RPPs) is yet a far-fetched idea due to technical and political problems.
Pepco sources further said that the Director General of Pepco, Mohammad Khalid, visited Faisalabad city to appease the business community there, particularly the power loom owners, as the Faisalabad grid has been hit hard by the latest spell of load shedding.
Industry sources said they have started experiencing long spells of load shedding, hitting hard the production cost. Only in textile sector, they said, the industry was experiencing announced and unannounced load shedding for five to eight hours a day on independent & grouped feeders, incurring 21 percent production loss a day, and the present disconnection of gas supply has doubled this loss.
All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (Aptma) took the initiative of implementing Sustainable Energy Conservation Programme in collaboration with technical support of German Technical Co-operation (GTZ), facilitated by the Small and Medium Enterprises Authority (SMEDA). The Energy Management System (EMS) is helping the selected units in textile industry to save 10-15 percent energy by efficient monthly energy audits.
It may be noted that the federal government has been claiming of overcoming the load shedding phenomenon by December 2009, which proved a false claim, followed by another controversy on RPPs with strong opposition from the recently resigned federal finance minister Shaukat Tarin and third-party audit by the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The federal government is yet not clear as when it would overcome the energy crisis in the country despite completing two years in power.