LAHORE, Dec 26: The Pakistan Electric Power Company (Pepco) is facing a shortfall of 6,150 megawatts because of water shortage in dams and is producing only 350MW of hydroelectric power against its capacity of 6,500MW.

Pepco Director-General (Energy Management and Conservation) Tahir Basharat Cheema told APP on Friday that after supplementing the supply from independent power producers (IPPs) and generating electricity through other means, the shortfall is 3,000MW at nights and 1,500 MW during days.

He said no investment had been made in the power sector over the past 10 years.

He said that either the government should give subsidy to the Water and Power Development Authority or consumers should pay the cost of production. He said the government had budgeted subsidy for consumers for the first time in Wapda’s history.

He said Pepco was preparing a plan to add 6,000MW to the system by 2010. An additional 3,253MW will be generated in 2009, 3,199MW in 2010, 2,951MW in 2011 and 100MW in 2012.

He said loadshedding was being carried out for six to eight hours a day in urban areas and for 10 hours in rural areas. The loadshedding is likely to continue till the end of January.

Mr Cheema said water outflow from Tarbela was 8,000 cusecs and from Mangla 5,000 cusecs and it was likely to shrink to zero after the closure of canals on January 1.