ISLAMABAD, JUN 30 (DNA) – With the rise of mercury level across Pakistan with Lahore sizzling at 44 degree Celsius and Islamabad 42 degree Celsius, the Power Division has also resorted to power loadshedding as the electricity shortfall is said to have crossed 5,000 megawatt causing prolonged power outages all over the country.

The urban areas are facing a loadshedding of eight hours while the rural areas are witnessing 10 hours long outages.

The sources said that Iesco was facing a 500MW power shortage. It further said that in federal capital the power outage duration would be of six hours and in its twin city, Rawalpindi, the loadshedding duration would be of eight hours long.  In Islamabad, there will be loadshedding of an hour after every four hours, they said.

Meanwhile, people of Lahore have started experiencing 6-7 hours of unannounced loadshedding as LESCO faced a shortfall of 660 megawatts of electricity. The LESCO officials said on Wednesday that demand for electricity in the provincial capital presently stood at 4,500 megawatts while 3, 840 of electricity was being produced right now.

Considerable increase in temperatures in recent days has led to an increase in demand for the power supply so much so that it reached 4,700 megawatts during peak hours. In the last few days, due to high temperatures the demand had touched even 4,900 megawatts mark.

Most areas in Punjab province will be in the grip of scorching heat.  In Gujrat district, where the maximum temperature will be 44 degree Celsius is witnessing unannounced loadshedding. In Gujrat city’s Machli chowk, Fawara chowk and Tumble chowk, the power has been off for the last three hours which is causing severe problems for the citizens.

Businesses are also being suffered due to power outages. The television channel has managed to find out the reasons for electricity and gas crises in the country according to which around 1,152 MMC FD of gas exited from the system on account of the repair of LNG terminal

On the other hand, 3, 500 megawatts of electricity was out of the system due to the shortage of water at Tarbela Dam, while refraining from the use of a large reservoir of furnace oil also led to the gas crisis in the country, sources in the Power Division said.

The sources further disclosed that despite the fact that oil refineries had a large reservoir of furnace oil, but government’s ban on power generation from the oil led to the crisis. They said that refineries had refused to import more furnace oil unless already available reservoir was consumed.

It has further been reported that government-run thermal power plants were producing 2,000 megawatts of electricity while those being run under the private sector were generating 13, 000 megawatts. = DNA

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