Power consumers brave prolonged outages across country

LAHORE: The power consumers across the country are braving prolonged and unannounced loadshedding amid hot and humid weather due to lower power generation induced by dysfunctional power plants and fuel shortages.

Shutting down of three power plants, including two coal-based power plants (2000mw) and Neelum-Jhelum Hydropower Plant (969mw) and shortage of fuel are the factors behind widening gap between power demand and supply.

The low electricity generation has caused six to fourteen hours of outages across the country amid high demand on the back of hot and humid weather. One of key power transmission lines collapsed earlier this month, which deprived national grid of cheap electricity from state-of-the-art thermal power plants.

According to an official of National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC), the four towers of the transmission lines may be repaired in the second week of the current month. The repair work of the Port Qasim-Matiari transmission is being done at the fast pace and it will be energized during the second week of September, said a spokesperson of transmission utility.

He added that a high-powered committee has also been constituted to check the reasons behind the collapse of towers. The hot weather has added to the consumer’s woes who have been facing massive unannounced power outages. From Peshawar to central Punjab, including Faisalabad, Gujranwala and Lahore, up to 14-hour loadshedding is being carried out.

People complained that despite paying exorbitant electricity bills, they have to endure extended hours of loadshedding. Especially, consumers in rural areas are braving 14 hours of loadshedding.

In the urban areas, electricity suspension of one hour after every hour have baffled masses. Besides domestic consumers, commercial customers also complained that their business have been hit hard due to persistent power failures. No formal announcement was made by the authorities concerned about intense power failures.