Power outages may start reducing from today

LAHORE: The power supply is going to improve from (Sunday) today with an upward trend in hydropower and dip in industrial and commercial demand due to long Eid holidays.

The Ministry of Energy formally announced on Saturday night about an improvement in power generation by 2,000MW from May 1, 2022 (Sunday). 

As per the announcement of the Ministry of Energy at the microblogging site, "Ministry of Power will enhance generation by nearly 2000MW from May 1. Loadshedding in most areas would be 50 percent less tomorrow and will continue to decline thereafter, except in low-recovery feeders."

There is no information shared by the Ministry of Energy about electricity demand and supply as well as availability of fuel for enhancing thermal power generation. 

It was learnt that a break from intense outages is being made possible due to dip in industrial and commercial activities, leading to about 1,500MW to 2,000MW reduction in power demand due to Eid holidays. Similarly, enhancement of about 500MW in hydropower is being seen because of growing river flows after heatwave positively impacted snow melt in the north.

As per the river flow data, an increase of about 15 to 20 thousand cusecs of water has been seen in the last three days. As per water report issued by Wapda, river inflows are as follows on Saturday: Indus at Tarbela: Inflows 31,200 cusecs and outflows 30,400 cusecs, Kabul at Nowshera: Inflows 14,100 cusecs and outflows 14,100 cusecs, Jhelum at Mangla: inflows 20,000 cusecs and outflows 28,000 cusecs, Chenab at Marala: inflows 12,300 cusecs and outflows 5,000 cusecs.

Nonetheless, it is a much-needed development for the masses who were made to experience extreme loadshedding amid a severe heatwave.