ISLAMABAD, May 23: Residents faced hardships due to prolonged power outages starting from the night between Tuesday and Wednesday, as the country faced exorbitant shortfall of 5,600 megawatt (MW) mainly due to drop in hydel power generation.

“It was a terrible night as electricity went off for two hours and we faced this situation after an interval of one hour,” said Asmat Zehra, resident of Rawalpindi, adding that, “even the UPS we had installed stopped working.”

Severe power outages contributed to water shortage.

“Most of the time, either tubewells were not functioning or our water suction motors could not be operated due to loadshedding,” said Mohammad Aamir, a resident of Westridge, who added that they had to bear loadshedding for around 16 hours from midnight to Wednesday evening.

Iesco spokesman said shortfall was a national issue and they were only a distribution agency. “We forward electricity and do not produce it and when we get less supply we give less power to consumers,” he added.

According to the National Transmission Distribution Centre (NTDC), at present 11,769 MW is being generated while demand stands at 17,369 MW.

The shortfall in generation, according to sources, was due to water shortage at the two main hydel power stations in Tarbela and Mangla.

Lahore, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Mul-tan, Gujranwala and other cities in Punjab are experiencing 13 to 16 hours of loadshedding.