4,500 MW power shortfall causes hour-long outages in Pakistan
Islamabad: All power companies in Pakistan have started observing hour-long forced loadshedding in urban and rural areas after the electricity shortfall in the country touched around 4,500 megawatts, media reports said on Friday.
However, the situation is more alarming than it may sound, as according to reports there were hourly power outages during peak hours even in big cities, including Lahore, and 12 to 16 hours in rural areas, according to official sources as quoted by The Dawn.
“The total demand of the Lahore Electric Supply Company (Lesco) crossed 4,200 MW during peak hours on Thursday, whereas the supply, as per the squeezed allocation, ranged between 3,100 MW to 3200 MW. It means that Lesco alone is facing a shortfall of at least 900MW,” an official source explained while talking to The Dawn on Thursday.
“Various power plants, including the nuclear K2, K3, C3, developed a fault and halted power generation. Similarly, some thermal plants also stopped working and the entire situation caused a shortfall of around 4,500 MW in the total countrywide demand of over 19,000 MW,” he added.
Officials of the National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) were not available for comments despite repeated attempts, but a source confirmed that all Discos were facing a shortfall in their demand, forcing them to resort to load management in their respective service areas.
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