Pakistan is facing a threat of low levels of coal inventory that might take3,900 MW out of the national grid, making the situation of power outagesworse.
The overall shortfall of electricity in the country has reached 5,000MW.Power Division sources said the total power generation in the countrywas 21,500 MW while demand stood at over 26,500 MW.The energy ministry haswarned Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to immediately arrange Rs100 billionto address the issue of coal inventory in a bid to avert the power crisis.
At present, the country is passing through one of its worst power outagessituation after the new coalition government came into power.According tothe sources, power generation from hydropower sources was 5,090 MW.Theyadded that the government’s thermal power plants were generating 960 MW.The production of private sector power plants is 12,578 MW.
Power generation from wind is 428 MW and zero from solarplants.Bagasse-based power plants are generating 167 MW while powergeneration from nuclear fuel is 2,277 MW.The total power generationcapacity is 36,039 MW, the sources said. Currently, different parts of thecountry are experiencing around 12 hours of power outages.
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The duration of power outages is longer in rural and high-lossareas.Cabinet members from different provinces including Balochistan havelashed out at the government for being unable to bring prolonged outagesunder control.
The government had also admitted in a recent cabinet meeting that zeropower outages were not possible due to the financial crunch.The PowerDivision secretary briefed the cabinet on state of situation. They wereinformed that an unprecedented rise in international fuel prices hadresulted in a substantive rise in the cost of generation.
