Power crisis eases as shortfall shrinks

With improvement in the supply of the Re-gasified Liquefied Natural Gas (RLNG) and flow of water in dams, the shortfall of electricity in the country has reduced from 6,000MW to 3,800MW.

According to sources in the Power Division, the overall demand of electricity in the country is around 25,000MW while the country on Saturday produced 21,200MW.

These 21,200MW included 4,200MW from hydel power projects; 2,500MW from government power plants and 14,500MW from independent power producers (IPPS).

On Friday, hydel power projects produced 4,000MW; the government's thermal power plants generated 2,000MW while the IPPS generated 13,000MW.

Officials from the Islamabad Electric Supply Company (Iesco) said that the company is now facing no shortfall and that it has stopped load shedding in the federal capital for now.

Also read: Power crisis to resolve by Monday: Hammad

On Friday, Iesco was facing a shortfall of 500MW – it requires 2,200MW but was getting 1,700MW. The people of Islamabad were facing a power outage of one hour after every four hours.

Taking to the micro-blogging site Twitter, Minister for Energy Hammad Azhar on Saturday said the government has restored 80% of the RLNG flows and that there has been no forced or unannounced load shedding in most areas since 5 pm Friday.

“The six day challenging period reduced to 3 days was made possible by seamless coordination between petroleum and power divisions. Also both Sui companies – Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) and Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) – provided valuable support and teamwork,” he added.

Hamamd on Friday claimed that the twin crisis of gas and electricity will be over by Monday and 70% supply of the Regasified Liquefied Natural Gas (RLNG) will be restored from Saturday.

“40% re-gasification of the RLNG from the replacement ship has been achieved two days ahead of schedule. We are targeting 70% restoration of the RLNG supply by tomorrow [Saturday],” the minister had written on Twitter as a number of cities across the country faced long power outages.

Also read: Use of RLNG by K-Electric to cost Rs18 billion

Speaking at a press conference later, Azhar said the authorities had to start the process of dry docking of the RLNG terminals on Wednesday resulting in suspension of gas supply to the power sector for two days. “However, 40% RLNG is already in the system,” he added.

The minister had said due to reduced inflow of water, Tarbela Dam was also producing just 20% to 25% of its capacity. “The water flows will improve in a few days and Tarbela Dam will also start producing up to 75% of its capacity,” he had added.

The minister had said that “some elements” were politicizing the temporary power disturbance. He had rejected the claim of PML-N leader and former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi that the government wants to clear the way for running furnace oil based plants

On Friday, various parts of the country continued to witness unannounced load shedding. According to some sources in the Power Division, the power shortfall on Saturday stayed at around 6,000MW.