Power crisis likely to worsen
Protests over loadshedding in Punjab may increase in the coming days.
ISLAMABAD (Web Desk) - The overall production of electricity remains elusive with shortfall remaining at 5000MWs.
Officials of the Ministry of Water and Power claim electricity production at 9000MWs, compared to demand of 14000MWs; making it difficult to stop unannounced load shedding.
Lahore is suffering a massive, irritating load shedding of one hour after every one hour, while rural areas were also suffering a load shedding of 10 hours to 12 hours.
The power crisis is likely to worsen in days to come owing to mounting circular debt, which is likely to cause more power plants to shut down, naturally worsening load shedding all across the country, reported media sources on Thursday.
The finance ministry on Wednesday refused to release Rs 20 billion, approved by the prime minister, saying that the ministry had not received any written directive in this regard.
PEPCO has to pay Rs 300 billion to independent power plants (IPPs), growing from Rs 200 billion,” IPP Advisory Council Chairman Abdullah Yousuf said. He said the power crisis will further worsen in the coming days due to circular debt which was getting out of hand.
Meanwhile, the Senate Standing Committee on Water and Power was informed on Wednesday that there would be no relief in power outages in the upcoming season and people will be facing load-shedding of at least eight hours per day.
The Punjab government is preparing for a meeting of the Council of Common Interests (CCI) which is expected to be held on April 23 to discuss the issue of riots that are expected to spark as a result of intensive electricity load shedding and the chances that these might sabotage the upcoming polls.
