June 12, 2007	Tuesday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 26, 1428

ISLAMABAD, June 11: Islamabad Electricity Supply Company (Iesco) have a message for the residents of the federal capital for this summer: brace for more loadshedding.

A spokesman for the company on Monday said loadshedding in different areas of the region had been increased due to shortage of power generation, extremely hot weather and excessive use of electricity.

In a statement, he said there would be loadshedding of 30 minutes duration three to four times a day. He, however, said loadshedding could be enhanced if the weather became sultrier and demand of electricity increased.

“In case of emergency, to save power distribution system the duration can be further enhanced up to one hour instead of 30 minutes,” he warned.

The spokesman appealed to the consumers to cut down unnecessary use of electricity voluntarily and help Iesco in reducing the duration of loadshedding.

Iesco consumers have been informed that they can get loadshedding programme from their sub-divisional complaint offices, whose numbers are already given on their electricity bills. Various parts of the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad were already witnessing unannounced loadshedding, which particularly annoyed students in the examination season.

Students living in private hostels suffer the worst as they face both loadshedding and water shortages.

Talking to Dawn many students said on one hand the government kept increasing power tariff while on the other it was unable to meet the gap between supply and demand.

“I am at a loss to understand why the government does not take immediate steps to increase power generation capacity,” Wajeeha Anwar, a student of Comsats university, said.

As the mercury continues to rise across the country, citizens are likely to face more loadshedding as soaring demand continues to outstrip limited supply. The shortfall has crossed 1,000 MW despite loadshedding of around 300 MW as targeted in the energy conservation plan.

Wapda electricity supply and demand statistics show that the shortfall was on the rise even in the month of May, whereas June and July are considered the hottest months of the year.

At present, 84 per cent of Wapda’s total consumer base consists of domestic users. The remaining 16 per cent consists of commercial (13 per cent), industrial (two per cent) and agricultural (one per cent) users.

Domestic consumers currently face loadshedding of between two to four hours in most areas of major cities, except for some privileged areas where only half-an-hour of loadshedding was observed during the last 24 hours.

Conceding for the first time that the country faces an energy crisis, the government in May confirmed a power shortage of 980-1500MW and announced a number of administrative and persuasive load management measures to contain loadshedding at below 980MW in peak summer.

Measures include closure of marketing centres and businesses after sunset, diversion of some industrial activity, avoiding the use of tubewells during peak hours and staggering of weekly holidays in the industrial sector.

The government rejected a reduction in street-lightening time for security reasons.

OUR CORRESPONDENT FROM TAXILA ADDS: Though the Iesco chief executive has announced that there would be no loadshedding during daytime, power outages continue unabated.

Loadshedding has been continuing for the last couple of weeks, which has made the lives of consumers miserable.

With temperatures rising, consumers of various urban and rural areas of Taxila and Hassanabdal are experiencing power breakdown, tripping and fluctuations.