Weather blues: Power outages increase as temperature falls

15 hours of loadshedding is experienced in Gilgit every day.

GILGIT:

As temperatures have fallen to as low as minus 10 Celsius in Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B), the duration of loadshedding has prolonged, complicating life in the mountainous region.

In Gilgit, the capital of G-B, the duration of power outages exceeds 15 hours a day. The situation has also worsened in Skardu, Astore, Hunza-Nagar and Ghizer valley. Earlier this week in Ghizer, police booked 40 persons for damaging public property in protests against power outages.

The region is currently experiencing a 132 megawatt power shortfall and the government has not been able to provide electricity to at least 15% of the population of the region, official sources told The Express Tribune.

“The shortfall increases considerably in winters when consumption increases (due to the use of electric heaters) while production decreases (due to freezing water),” said an official.

Official sources said that the shortfall in Gilgit is about 23 megawatts, while there is a 25% difference in supply and demand in Skardu, the second largest city in G-B.

According to official statistics, the total strength of consumers in all seven districts of G-B is over 150,700.

Water and Power Minister Wazir Shakeel said on Sunday that about 120 megawatts would be generated in G-B by 2015, a region that is believed to have the capacity to produce more than 50,000 megawatts of power.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 20^th, 2011.