Locals in Township, Green Town, Iqbal Town and several other areas complained that power outages had increased with the rise of the mercury level in the city.
A citizen, Aslam Khan, said that even on the weekend, prolonged load shedding plagued Township and adjoining areas. He said these circumstances had made peoples’ lives miserable.
Similarly, frequent power failures further added to their miseries as people kept waiting for hours for electricity to perform their religious obligations during the holy month.
A resident of Green Town named Zeeshan said he was simply unable to concentrate on his prayers as there was no electricity in the area.”
Lahore Electricity Supply Company (LESCO) officials blamed harsh weather for the increase in load-shedding and power outages in the city.
According to a LESCO spokesman, with increase in mercury level and the start of Ramazan, there was a great surge in demand. The company, he added, got a limited electricity quota from the national grid. The spokesman pointed out that at present, the shortfall between LESCO quota and demand is about 1,300 to 1,400 megawatts.
He said the company was trying to implement a new power schedule for Ramazan. Under the schedule, all residential feeders would be exempted during Sehri and Iftar times, while industrial feeders would witness nine-and-a-half hours of load shedding.
According to official data, the country is currently facing around 5,000 megawatts of shortfall as energy demand is hovering around 17,000 megawatts.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 30th, 2017.
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