LAHORE, April 8: The power situation started easing a bit on Monday as the planners were able to add around 2,000MW to the generation, raising it to around 9,000MW, in the last 24 hours – officially reducing the deficit to 4,000MW.

According to the sectoral managers, the Uch Power came back by Sunday night as Oil and Gas Development Company was able to repair the supply line. In addition, the Hubco started contributing another 300MW. Fuel supplies to Pak-Gen also improved and a relief of 350MW came from it.

The Indus River System Authority (Irsa) also marginally improved (by around 3,000 cusecs) indent from Tarbella Dam, which brought relief from both Tarbella and Ghazi-Brotha hydropower projects.

“Put together, all these factors increased generation by around 2,000MW as compared to Sunday,” says an official of National Transmission and Dispatch Company (NTDC).

According to him, though it has not solved the crisis, but it has certainly eased the situation; allowing the distribution companies to follow some kind of loadshedding schedule. All the distribution companies were directed on Monday to submit and follow the schedule, he said.

Another management step, suspending supply to the textile sector between 6pm to 12am will also provide the planners with another maneuvering space of 800MW. This additional supply should help the sector see through peak hours safely.

“From today, it would be 12-hour loadshedding for urban areas – on alternate hours,” says an official of Pakistan Electric Power Company (Pepco). The rural areas should stabilise in the next day or so if no unforeseen situation emerges, he hoped and added: “This all we can do within limited resources. Hopefully, some gas supplies may also be diverted to power plants if both distribution companies are paid their dues. But it would take a few days.”