ISLAMABAD, July 4: With power shortfall crossing 1,400 megawatts, relevant agencies are scheduled to brief Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Thursday on the overall demand-supply position and power plants expected to be set up over the next couple of years.

Sources in the ministry of water and power sources told Dawn on Tuesday that the overall decline in power generation was because of about 80 per cent reduction in hydroelectricity production owing to low river flows and pre-scheduled closure of a 500MW independent power project (IPP) in Balochistan.

A senior official said the situation in Karachi had started ‘easing out’ following last week’s addition of 100MW supply by Wapda but shutdowns and loadshedding in rural Punjab, Azad Kashmir and parts of the NWFP had increased to more than six hours daily on an average. In many parts of Azad Kashmir, loadshedding of up to eight to 10 hours a day was being carried out.

He said that the prime minister was likely to be briefed on transmission constraints and new power plants. He said the government might allow Wapda to instal another 450MW thermal power station in Faisalabad or Multan, in addition to the recently advertised plant at Chichuki Malyan.

The sources said that some senior government officials were looking for scapegoats for power crisis and reduction in power generation capacity but added the scheduled closure of power plants for maintenance was an annual feature. Power projects are sequenced to close over the year to minimise the chances of a major shortfall, they said.

The sources said the secretary water and power had convened a meeting of Wapda officials on Wednesday to brief him on the mechanism of forced outages of power plants before prime minister was given an overall picture.

The 580MW Uch Power Plant in Dera Murad Jamali, was closed last week for about 45 days for annual maintenance. Additionally, water in Tarbela is 80 feet lower than last year’s level, lowering Tarbela units’ power output by 1,200MW. The water level in the Mangla reservoir is also 20 feet lower than the level at this time last year.

Officials said that the overall generation capacity had declined by more than 1,600MW but a part of the power shortage had been offset by maximum supplies from thermal stations and IPPs. But since most of these thermal plants were in the south — Guddu, Muzaffargarh, Multan, Faisalabad and Hub — the problems were being faced in power distribution. They, however, said problems in power transmission would be overcome soon after the completion of 500KV Dadu-Khuzdar and Shahi Bagh lines.