An unannounced load shedding just before the start of December stirred panic among consumers, particularly commercial consumer, as Pakistan Electricity Power Company (Pepco) assertions of allaying the fears of a major outage from December 15 to onwards are proving hollow claims.
It may be noted that Pakistan Electricity Power Company (Pepco) about a week earlier had rejected the fear of a power shortage up to 4000 MW from mid December onwards due to non-availability of water and gas. The Pepco DG had told Business Recorder in categorical terms that there was anticipation of simply a 'manageable' shortage of 300 MW to 1,300 MW.
Pepco Director General Energy Management & Conservation Tahir Basharat Cheema was of a strong view that the Pepco is likely to retain 10,700 MW electricity against a demand of 11,000- 12,000 MW in December. Regarding the arrangement of electricity for month of December when canals would be closed for de-silting purposes, the Pepco DG had pointed out that the IPPs are producing 5,200 MW electricity and all of the IPPs would remain operational this time.
Also, he added, Wapda has launched an aggressive campaign for electricity conservation and about 1000 MW was being conserved through it. However, the sudden outages of electricity in major parts of the city raised many eyebrows among consumers and newspaper offices receiving calls from consumers protesting against what they said, Pepco's misstating the facts.
Many textile millers from central Punjab told Business Recorder that they had started experiencing unannounced and unscheduled power outages in their respective areas. It is also worth noting that the federal government is constantly asserting the fact that a shortage of about 4000 MW is on the cards against PEPCO's claim of simply 1300 MW shortage in the month of December.
The DG Pepco contacted on Thursday again reiterated his stance and vow to keep the power shortage between 300 MW to 1300 MW. Regarding Wednesday's unannounced load shedding, he said a plant at Kot Addu Power Company (Kapco) with generation capacity of 500 MW was suddenly went out of commission due to technical faults.
Besides, another 250 MW electricity shortage occurred at the same time due to system constraints. Resultantly, electricity supply to a few areas was interrupted, he said. However, he assured that no major breakdown is expected during the month of December like the last year and the consumers should trust upon the efficiency of Pepco staff besides co-operating with them to save energy.
According to him, all thermal power generation plants would be put into full generation and the Independent Power Producers will be running at full capacity by the time canals are closed for de-silting purposes. Also, he said, maintenance of power distribution lines was also underway right now.
For example, some 95 out of 1100 feeders of Lahore Electricity Supply Company (Lesco) were closed Wednesday for maintenance purposes, which again caused a disruption in supply of electricity to consumers. He added in the same breath that all kind of maintenance is properly advertised in newspapers and requested the consumers to go through such newspaper notices thoroughly.