ISLAMABAD – Government officials have claimed many times that load sheddinghas been eradicated entirely. However, the ground reality is in completecontrast to those bogus claims, as several areas of the country aresuffering as much as 14 hours of power outages a day.
This is just the beginning as the officials in the petroleum division ofthe ministry of energy say that furnace oil stocks are at a critically lowlevel.
According to the officials, the current shortfall stands at 5,000megawatts. However, some sources state otherwise and tell that this numbergoes as high as 8,000 megawatts. The category-1 consumers with less than10% loss areas are going through 4-6 hours of power cuts. On the otherhand, the high-loss areas are suffering 12-14 hours of power outages eachday.
According to the power division, Balloki, Bhikki, Haveli Bahadur Shah powerplants, four nuclear plants, Neelum-Jhelum and other hydropower stationsare unavailable for power generation which is the primary reason behind theshortfall. The reason behind their unavailability is that they tripped ataround 1.30 am yesterday and would take some time to fully resume theirfunction.
On the other hand, several stations have only 3-5 days worth of fuel supplyleft. Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan gave the belated permission for oilshipments’ import which won’t be delivered before May 3. Around 420,000tonnes of fuel is expected to arrive between 3rd and 14th May.