Apart from scheduled power outages, unannounced loadshedding is also being carried out across Punjab due to rising power shortage ahead of summer. The industry sources said that unannounced loadshedding duration has crossed six hours a day and they were clueless when the situation would improve. The domestic consumers took to streets in different parts of the province to protest against unannounced loadshedding.
It may be noted that electricity shortfall rose on Friday beyond 6,000MW, almost 50 percent of total 13,000MW demand in the country, leading to 10 to 14 hours of loadshedding. The urban localities were facing more than 10 hours of loadshedding while there is virtually no electricity in rural areas. Sources from Pepco feared more complex situation ahead with least possibility of improvement in near future.
They said scarcity of fuel, gas and water supplies to generation system were behind power generation. On the one hand the ever-rising circular debt trapped has affected fuel supply to thermal generation units while on the other hand prolonging winter has affected uninterrupted gas supply. Meanwhile, two major dams are also presenting empty look, as river flows were down to 10-year low. These three factors have brought the generation system down, leading to exceptional shortfall at the very outset of summer season. The situation is likely to get worst with the addition of electronic appliances to the system with rise in temperature. The power generation has already come down to 8600MW during the peak hours ie from 6pm to 11pm.
Pepco sources said hydel generation has dropped to 1000MW from 5,000MW, as outflows to Tarbela and Mangla dams are low. Meanwhile, some thermal units have been closed down due to inefficiency leading to high cost per unit power generation. It brought down thermal generation from over 2,500MW to around 1,200MW, creating a shortfall of 1,300MW on this head alone.