August 13, 2007	Monday	Rajab 28, 1428

LAHORE, Aug 12: Electricity shortfall of the Water and Power Development Authority surged to around 1,500 megawatts despite Sunday being a holiday, incessant rains in most parts of the country and the Karachi Electric Supply Company’s demand dropping to almost nil due to rains and tripping of over 700 feeders in the city.

Sources told Dawn that the shortage could have risen to around 2,500mw had the aforementioned factors did not play their role, leaving the country on the brink of disaster. The KESC, on an average, consumes around 600-650mw from the Wapda pool and rains in Sindh and Balochistan have helped bring down the demand by another 500mw.

According to them, the authority was always clear about surge in demand as load growth could be calculated with almost mathematical precision. “What it is not clear about is constraints in generations. For example, the water releases from the Mangla dam has been brought down to 15,000 cusecs in spite of the fact that the lake level stands at 1,199 feet — only three feet below the optimum level. Owing to this squeeze on release, the authority has suffered a drop of 500mw in generation; it is getting only 600mw as against possible 1,150mw.

Another factor making things difficult for the authority was the failure of the provincial and district governments to execute shutdown timings for shops and markets, they said, adding that the initiative had lost momentum.