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July 05, 2008	Saturday	Rajab 1, 1429

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LAHORE, July 4: The power supply situation throughout the country worsened on Friday with peak time deficit going beyond 4,500MW, forcing the eight distribution companies to resort to a two-hour unannounced loadshedding in addition to the existing six hours.Pakistan Electric Power Company (Pepco) officials admitted that the peak-hour deficit was between 4,500MW and 4,700MW, despite substantial improvement in water situation. The hydel generation on Friday was 5,600MW against 1,300MW this winter.

The officials blamed poor supply of oil and gas to both independent power producers and Pepco’s own thermal units for the power shortage.

The IPPs are generating only 4,300MW against their peak time contribution of 4,900MW this winter. The Pepco’s own thermal generation has gone down to 2,300MW from 2,900MW.“Had Pepco Rs10-15 billion for payment of oil, it could have easily reduced the shortfall by 2,000MW,” said a Pepco official. He said the company could also generate another 1,000MW if its system was improved, but the government had not been able to allocate money for it.

“The fiscal crunch has forced Pepco to generate power less than its installed capacity. The company also cannot force the IPPs to operate to their full capacity because it cannot afford the oil bill.”

The official said the current demand for power had reached 15,000MW and it would further rise by 700-800MW in August, adding that tubewells’ demand for power also increased during the sowing season of rice and cotton.

The hydel generation still has a cushion of 1,000MW and so was the demand. The power shortage is likely to persist for the rest of summer.

Urban areas are currently facing eight hours of loadshedding. The situation became worse when routine distribution problems, created by overloaded system, also joined long hours of loadshedding, the official said.