15 hours power outages as shortfall crosses 3,500MW

LAHORE-Despite claims made by the Pakistan Electric Supply Company about improving the power supply in the country, residential, trade centres and industrial areas continued to experience severe and unscheduled power outages of upto 15 hours as power shortfall has touched the figure of 3,5001 megawatts.
The sources in the PEPCO also reported a breakdown of 132kv power transmission line of Sahiwal-Pakpattan for last eight hours-another setback for the power distribution companies.
The inhabitants of Sahiwal and Pakpattan were without electricity since last over eight hours, as the authorities did not restore the electricity till the filing of this story.
The sources said the production of electricity from all sources was just 11,715 megawatts while its demand was witnessed as rising further to touch 15,216 megawatts owing to high temperature on Monday.
Unfortunately, the production was further down by another 750 megawatts on thermal side while the hydel sector continued to produce just 1500 to 1700MW out of its entire capacity of 6,500 megawatt.
WAPDA generation plants are producing around 1500 to 1700 megawatt out of its total capacity of 4,000 megawatt.
Rental power plants are generating around 150 megawatt while IPPs on Monday produced nearly 4,300 megawatt.
Meanwhile, people continued to face hardships owing to extension in the duration of loadshedding.
On the other hand, the PEPCO officials claim that the country was facing only a shortfall of 14,114 megawatts and according to it there was around 2,000 megawatt deficit.
People said that the loadshedding was being carried out for 10 to 12 hours in urban areas and up to 15 hours in rural localities.
The power consumers complained that they were spending all the day and night without electricity.
It was observed that every section of the society was in trouble due to unscheduled and unannounced prolonged loadshedding in City.
The areas most affected by prolonged power outages in the City include Shad Bagh, Queens Road, Mozang, Wahdat Colony, Ichhra, Township, Rehman Pura, Walled City, Bhatti, Sanda, Mufti Road, Chohan Park, Samanabad, Griffin Housing Scheme, Allama Iqbal Town, Johar Town, New Mozang, Gulshan-i-Ravi, Kachupura, Garhi Shahu, Cavalry Ground, Green Town, Awan Town, Faisal Town, Model Town, Chungi Amarsaddhu, Ravi Road, Gulberg, Sadar, Cant, Mughalpura, Gujjar Pura, Laxmi, Gawalmandi, Anarkali, The Mall, Saadi Park, Shadman, Multan Road, Yateem Khana, Muslim Town, Shahdara Town, Badami Bagh, Circular Road, Railway Road, Fleming Raod, Islampura, Sant Nagar, McLeod Road and Band Road.
Pakistan Electric Power Company officials said that it was making all possible efforts to effectively balance the rising electricity demand and the generation resources. They said that the power plants are being organised to reach optimal generation capacity and the general public is being persuaded to exercise energy discipline.