Power shortfall hits record level of 7,500 MW

LAHORE: The power shortfall on Wednesday rose to an unprecedented level of 7,500 MW, triggering massive loadshedding of over 10 hours in urban areas and up to 18 hours in rural areas.

Despite several claims made by the incumbent government to permanently solve the problem, the duration of power outages are yet to be curtailed. Instead, with every passing day, it seems that deficit in power demand and supply tends to be multiplying. 

In spite of government's claims, electricity generation could not be increased beyond the mark of 20,000 MW. Presently, it is learnt that power generation was at 19,200 MW while demand had gone through the roof to a massive level of 26,700 MW. 

Power generation at natural gas-fired, coal-based plants and furnace oil-run thermal plants has come to a virtual standstill.

Presently, imported coal plants are running at only 25 percent of production capacity and three major furnace oil plants have totally been shut down. Moreover, hydropower generation was also much less than the usual level at this time of the year thanks to unfavorable hydrological conditions in river basin.

According to official data, output of hydropower stood at just 4,200 MW against installed capacity of 9,000 MW. Consequently, in a metropolitan city like Lahore, power suspension has been witnessed after every half-an-hour for two to three hours on Wednesday. This unthinkable electricity loadshedding has never been witnessed in the last couple of decades.