Minister for Water and Power Khawaja Asif said on Thursday that several power plants will start generating electricity from 2018, adding 8,000MW to the national grid.

“8000 megawatt electricity will be added into the system next year which will help address the energy issue,” said the minister while talking to a private news channel.

Asif added that uninterrupted power supply had been ensured to the industrial sector during the last two years.

The minister on Monday had confirmed a massive electricity shortfall of 5,420MW, but attributed the “unscheduled loadshedding” to higher than normal temperatures.

Asif said the current year’s generation of 12,550MW was almost 1,000MW higher than the last year’s, but the demand had also surged to a record 17,970MW. The demand was 15,600MW in April last year — a rise of more than 2,000MW.

Prime Minister Nawaz swept to power in 2013 vowing to eradicate crippling outages which had adversely effected economic development in the country