The country is facing load shedding of around 10 to 12 hours in the cities owing to 6,000 MW shortfall between demand and supply with the Ministry of Water and Power not ready to share any details of power shortages facing the country today but conceded that load shedding has increased dramatically during the last few days. Ministry of Water and Power, National Transmission and Distribution Company (NTDC), and National Power Control Center (NPCC) have reportedly strictly prohibited the staff from sharing electricity demand-supply statistics with media, this correspondent was informed in no uncertain terms.
Sources on condition of anonymity however revealed that electricity demand has risen to around 18,000 MW in recent days and generation was about 12,000 MW, reflecting a gap of around 6,000 MW. As a result, load shedding duration has increased from 12 to 14 hours. An official revealed that a shortfall of 1,000 MW in the system was attributable to damage to cooling units of power plants due to floods in Muzaffargarh alone. Another 1,500 MW supply decline was due to a decline in hydel power generation from Tarbela - from 3,500 MW to 2,000 MW.
Sources requesting anonymity however stated that the financial problems of PSO and IPPs was the single most major factor behind the increase in load shedding - an acknowledgement that disproves Ministry of Water and Power's claim that power sector payables have been reduced to Rs 238 billion from Rs 300 billion. Finance Minister Ishaq Dar who had been heading the committee constituted by the Prime Minister on power sector has failed to improve the financial picture of the power sector through improved efficiencies, sources added. The entire focus of the Finance Ministry as well as Water and Power Ministry is on tariff rationalisation and nothing is being done to deal with the structural issues relating to transmission, distribution and administrative inefficiencies, an official dealing with the sector lamented. He said that the committee's output is limited to meetings and statements, and the ground reality is that the situation is worsening with time.
The government has committed to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) under the $6.64 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF) that it would increase tariffs by 0.5 per cent of the GDP, around Rs 145 billion, in the current fiscal year with the objective of minimising subsidies which, sources in the Finance Ministry, has become politically challenging with the growing pressure on the government by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Awami Tehreek.