Frequent power outages grip Pakistan

Islamabad [Pakistan], April 1 : Pakistan is facing a severe power crisis with all nine power distribution companies (Discos) on Thursday starting hours-long interruptions of electricity supply in urban and rural areas across the country. On the other hand, consumers blamed the government for the current crisis.
The power shortfall has surged to around 4,500 megawatts. The circumstances are grave as big cities are facing hourly power outages during peak hours. In rural areas, people are not getting electricity from 12 to 16 hours, according to official sources, reported Dawn.
Consumers have been complaining about the hours-long interruption in electricity since Wednesday. Arsalan, a consumer said, "In Rawalpindi/Islamabad, we are experiencing load shedding on an hourly basis."
Akbar, a resident of a private housing society on Lahore's Khayaban-i-Jinnah, said, "If electricity outage wasn't enough, we are also facing gas load-shedding at night from 9 pm to 6 am daily."
An official source, while talking to Dawn on Thursday, said, "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 3,200 MW. It means that Lesco alone is facing a shortfall of at least 900 MW."
"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, reported the newspaper.
As the newspaper tries to reach out to the officials of the National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC), they were unavailable for comments despite repeated attempts. As the demand for these Discos is not met and with a spike in power shortage, the companies have to resort to load management.
Residents of Lahore, Sheikhupura, Kasur, Okara, Nankana Sahib, Faisalabad, Jhang, Toba Tek Singh, Sahiwal, Pakpattan, Gujranwala, Multan, Rahim Yar Khan, Khanewal, Vehari, Sargodha, Khushab, Mianwali and several cities of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and Sindh also complained of unannounced outages.
Meanwhile, the unannounced electricity load-shedding has also caused a water crisis in major cities of Punjab and other provinces. Lahore is facing a rather distressing situation due to the non-operation of tubewells because of the outages and the squeezed timetable.
Ikram, a resident of Johar Town, lamented, "For the past many days, we have been facing a severe water crisis. But since Tuesday, the situation has worsened owing to water shortage after load shedding."