ISLAMABAD, July 11: With no let up in energy crisis, the government is expected to start formal loadshedding and spread its duration evenly to different parts of the country to enable consumers to plan their life accordingly.

Sources said that Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz would chair a meeting on Wednesday with the authorities of water and power ministry, Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) and other related bodies to consider the loadshedding plan.

Under the prime minister’s instructions, the officials of the ministry of water and power and Wapda have been holding back-to-back meetings for the last few days following criticism the government had to face over un-announced loadshedding.

“The best way to counter criticism over electricity shortage is to face it and take people into confidence over the overall situation,” a senior official quoted the prime minister as having said at a recent meeting over electricity crisis.

He said the government believed that announcements in the past of no-loadshedding had been counter productive because there was nothing the government could have done when there was a clear gap between demand and supply. “It is better to face public and come up with shortest possible means to fill the gap,” said a senior official.

In Karachi, there was no more unannounced shutdowns but loadshedding under strict schedules announced by the utility in advance, he said.

Instead of 12-hour breakdown in few areas, one to two hours per day cut on a larger scale would reduce the impact, the official said.

In this context, the relevant authorities have been asked to speed up execution of projects which have already been given approvals and were at different stages of completions. One of the options were to side-track procedural formalities of bidding etc and start some barge-mounted plants that would reduce construction period but by the time such plants were shipped, energy crisis would already be over.

Minimum time for import of barge-mounted plant is estimated at three months.

A Wapda official in Lahore said the overall power shortfall ranged between 600-1,400mw in the last few weeks depending upon the weather conditions.

He said the situation would remain more or less the same during current month and first half of August.

The official said the water situation in dams had slightly improved in the past few days but storage was much lower than the same period last year. Water level at Tarbela was about 68.5-feet lower than corresponding period of last year, while level at Mangla was about 22-feet on the lower side. As a result, the hydel power production was being recorded at a maximum of about 4,900mw of electricity against a total capacity of more than 6,000mw.

Tarbela and Mangla dams were producing 900mw and 300mw, respectively, less than their capacity.

He said the temperatures have dropped over the last weekend but Wapda had to shed load to the tune of about 600mw including about 400mw in Lahore and adjoining areas, being fed from Gatti transmission line, and about 200mw in Azad Kashmir and upper Punjab, being fed by Rawat line.

Under the loadshedding plan finalized by the water and power secretary in consultation with Wapda, distribution companies and generation companies, most of Punjab and Azad Kashmir and almost half of the NWFP would be affected by the loadshedding in the next few weeks.

An official said Azad Kashmir had been exempted from loadshedding on Monday and Tuesday because of elections for the Legislative Assembly but proportionate shutdowns would take place in the AJK and Punjab up to Multan. In NWFP, Mardan, Charsadda and Swat would be affected by the loadshedding.

Meanwhile, President Gen Pervez Musharraf announced his resolve on Tuesday “to overcome prevailing energy crisis by taking all possible measures on war footings”.

He was speaking with some investors on Tuesday.