Chashma Nuclear Power Plant will resume generating 300 MW power Saturday (tomorrow) after a five-month closer on account of annual maintenance and repairs. The Director General, Pakistan Electric Power Company (Pepco), Tahir Basharat Cheema told Business Recorder on Thursday that an addition of 300 MW electricity to the national grid will further ease the load-shedding in the country.
He said that it has not been decided as yet whether the 300 MW electricity generated by Cashma Plant would be exclusively given to the industrial sector or to domestic consumers. 'But there would be definitely one hour reduction in the load shedding hours,' he added. Cheema said that the power supply position would further improve with the reopening of irrigation canals on January 22, after annual de-silting and repairs and electricity production started by hydro-power generating units at Tarbela and Mangla.
He recalled that there was a shortfall of 4,500 MW electricity on the third of this month, as Pepco had only 6,500 MW of electricity from all sources, as against the national demand of 11,000 MW. 'After increased supply of oil and gas to the thermal power generation units and improvement in power supply network, the shortfall has now come down to 1700 MW' he added.