Outages increase to meet shortfall

LAHORE

Without following any revised load management programme, the top managers of Lahore Electric Supply Company (Lesco) resorted to unannounced outages from last 24 hours or so besides intensifying shutdowns on the pretext of maintenance work, sources said here on Thursday.

Abrupt suspension in electricity supply has become a common thing once again with six to 16 hours outages daily by Lesco. The managers have failed to notice rising power demand and could not coordinate in advance for increasing supply in view of above-average mercury levels being witnessed from third week of current month.

It is learnt that Lesco is presently facing demand of nearly 4,000mw with supply of around 2,000mw. The huge shortfall of about 2,000mw was being managed by increasing duration of outages coupled with enhancing intensity of so-called planned shutdowns, claimed sources. Against the last load management programme, which was being followed since last week of February 2017, three to six hours of additional outages are being done daily in urban and rural areas. As domestic consumers have no prior knowledge about the outages in their respective area, routine life has started becoming miserable with every passing day.

Presently, against the planned three-hour a day outages (in one-hour interruptions each), people living in the urban areas, including district headquarters, are subjected to six-hour outages daily, including three hours in day time and three hours in the night. The duration of outages in rural areas has increased up to 18 hours against planned 16 hours. As per new power supply parameters, intensity of outages have increased in different urban and rural areas based on respective line losses.

Another worrying factor that is haunting hapless consumers has been increasing intensity of forced shutdowns. The hapless consumers are suffering from double whammy of outages and increasing number of forced shutdowns amid hot weather, said Muhammad Tariq, a resident of Garden Town. He added that power supply was suspended in his area from 9am to 3pm on Thursday. The prolonged outages are already making our life a hell and now forced shutdown has made lives even worse, he lamented.

It is learnt that Lesco cut power supply to fairly large parts of the metropolis on the pretext of repair and maintenance daily, involving over 100 feeders at a time. On Thursday, on the pretext of repair and maintenance, 141 so-called approved outages were witnessed in as many feeders, each spanning about 5-8 hours.

Similarly, apart from routine mandatory outages, electricity supply was suspended in 99 feeders on March 29, while power supply was cut in 116 areas on March 28. In total, consumers braved over 2,000 such shutdowns in the month of March this year, said sources. These shutdowns are being carried out on various excuses like annual preventive maintenance, area planning, shifting of lines, tree trimming etc. Despite repeated contacts, Wajid Ali Kazmi, Chief Executive Lesco and Imran Afzal, media affairs official did not offer any comment on rising trend of outages and shutdowns.