PESHAWAR: A large area of Khyber Pakhtun­khwa, which includes Peshawar, Mardan and Hazara divisions, has been without electricity since Thursday, apparently because of problems with power generation at Warsak and Tarbela power stations.

Officials of the Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) told Dawn that the situation had been under control until Wednesday; however, everything went downhill on Thursday.

Describing the power shortfall as acute, an official revealed that the power deficit had gone up from 700MW two days ago, to 1,200MW on Friday. He added that this had led to massive power cuts as residents of the provincial capital have been enduring a punishing heatwave.

The Warsak power house, he explained, generated up to 250MW and supplied most of Peshawar’s power requirements. Power generation plummeted to 5MW on Thursday and has been the same since then.

Nearly all localities in Peshawar, especially Cantt and Hayatabad areas, had suffered extended power outage, he said, and added that many people had taken to the streets to protest against the blackout.

The official said that the Water and Power Develop­ment Authority (Wapda) had told them that the Warsak power station was facing problems in generating electricity, which had led to low voltage, frequent power tripping and additional loadshedding.

He said that in addition to this, power supply to Mardan and Hazara divisions from a section of the Tarbela power house had been fluctuating for some time, causing an extended power outage in both regions. KP gets 2,200MW of power from Wapda every day whereas its daily demand is 3,000MW.

Pesco spokesperson Shauakt Afzal told Dawn that they had taken up this matter with Wapda. He said that Pesco was only a distribution company and thus was only responsible for distributing power among consumers. Mr Afzal said the duration of loadshedding had increased by two hours due to power cuts.

“What has been happening since Thursday is not routine loadshedding and Pesco being a distributor has been helpless in this regard,” he added.

Published in Dawn, June 9th, 2018