Power shortfall has reached 3000 megawatts due to increase in demand for electricity in the city. According to the National Tariff and Despatch Company (NTDC), the overall demand for electricity is 21,000MW while its production is 18,000MW.
Meanwhile, sources in the Lahore Electric Supply Company (LESCO) pointed out that the Company was facing a shortfall of 550MW which is leading to three to six hours of unannounced load shedding in several areas of the city.
They said a reduction in water releases from Mangla Dam has resulted into lower power generation from hydel sources. Also, technical faults were occurred in the system two days ago and the consumers suffered from six hours long load shedding during the first half of Thursday night. Fault in the 220KV Sheikhupura transmission line suspended the provision of electricity from Bund Road grid station. The affected areas were provided power from alternate grids which overloaded them and affected other parts as well.
Meanwhile, people in many urban and rural areas of Punjab are witnessing worst power outages in the recent past, particularly after the holding of general elections in the country. The situation has become worst in the city and its adjoining districts where consumers continued to face load shedding for eight to 10 hours in urban and 10 to 16 hours in rural areas due to a power breakdown, overloaded system, shortfall and other issues.