LAHORE: After a brief respite due to improved weather conditions in the last few days, the demand for electricity soared to 22,000 megawatts with a rise in mercury again on Monday, forcing power distribution companies (Disco) to observe loadshedding for up to six hours in urban and eight hours in rural areas across the country.

However, a senior official from the Lahore Electric Supply Company (Lesco) claimed that the company observed loadshedding of four hours in urban and six hours in rural areas on Monday.

“During the pleasant weather, we even had zero loadshedding except at the time when officials were energising the feeders or distribution lines tripped due to storms. However, on Monday due to a rise in mercury, our demand reached about 4,000MW between 2pm and 3pm (peak hours) against a supply of around 3,000MW under an allocated quota that varies depending on the demand and supply,” Lesco Chief Executive Officer Syed Wajid Ali Kazmi told Dawn.

Power shortfall reaches 4,500MW while generation is 17,500MW

According to the National Transmission Company’s National Power Control Centre (NPCC), the country’s total demand surged to 22,000MW at peak hours during the day, while generation was 17,500MW.

“Thus, the shortfall remained around 4,500MW. The 17,500MW power added to the national grid includes 3,300MW to 3,400MW from hydel, 2,900MW to 3,000MW from the state-owned generation companies and 9,000MW from independent power producers. Around 3,00MW were also added to the national grid by the Punjab government-owned RLNG-fired Bhikki Power Plant after its first turbine resumed operation after engineers rectified a fault,” NPCC General Manager Ilyas Ahmad explained.

According to the Lesco chief, the company focused on providing relief to overloaded feeders that caused various system constraints -- tripping, low voltage, fluctuation and unscheduled outages.

“Of the 30 critical feeders that were absorbing a load of 470 ampere instead of the standard 250, five have been brought down to the load of 250 ampere. These include Hanjarwal, Rana Town, Attari Saroba, G-1 Halllah and Faisal Park feeders. Work on the remaining is under way. And within the next six months, we will bring all high ampere absorbing (overloaded) feeders -- some 300 -- down to 250 ampere by adding new 132kV grid stations, transmission lines and upgrading the existing ones, he added.

On the other hand, people continue to suffer from routine loadshedding besides unscheduled outages due to system constrains. “It seems loadshedding may not end in the tenure of the sitting government; it is going on the way it did in previous years,” said Shahid, a resident of Johar Town.

Published in Dawn, June 13th, 2017