Amid scorching heat: Countrywide power outages multiply people’s woes

LAHORE: Prolonged, unannounced power outages have multiplied the miseries of heat-stricken citizens across the country.People of Lahore complained that they had been braving 8-10 hours of loadshedding against the scheduled loadshedding of 2-4 hours.

‘It seems that power utility is clueless about demand and supply of electricity and it has failed to manage available power prudently,’ said Hassan, a resident of Canal Road. Shaheen, another local resident, wondered, ‘what is going on with the electricity here in the city as people are suffering one-hour power outage after every two hours.’

The situation in Karachi is also not much different than Punjab’s capital city as the metropolis is facing worst outages with no respite in hot and dry weather. Abdullah Sultan, a resident of Karachi, regretted that power utility despite announcing his area outages-free is suspending power supply up to 10 hours daily. Osama Ajmal bemoaned as he called the situation a lethal combination of loadshedding and extreme hot weather, which is making lives of people miserable. Mansur, another power consumer, said it was cruel to face unbearable loadshedding in scorching heat.

Amir Khan, a resident of Dera Ismail Khan, decried that people of the area were getting only a few hours of electricity supply daily, causing severe agony to masses. Murad Ali, a resident of Faqirabad, Peshawar, complained of power supply suspension for three hours every day.

A nationwide shortfall of electricity stood at over 5,500 MW on Wednesday with power generation faltering at 21,500 MW, while the demand surged to about 27,000 MW. LESCO alone is facing a shortfall of over 800 MW, one of the highest in Punjab province.

One of the major reasons of lower power availability is the lack of fuel for power generation. Pakistan’s dependence on imported energy has become unbearable for the government. Former PM Shahid Khaqan Abbasi had said federal government needs $125 million worth of investment for eliminating an hour of outage. He claimed that “very few high” loss feeders are experiencing about 10 hours loadshedding while the rest face only couple of hours of outages.