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Updated 06 May, 2014 10:01pm

Actual power shortfall at least 7000MW, official records reveal

ISLAMABAD: The actual shortfall in power generation in the country is much greater than the 3,100 MW claimed by the government, computerised records of the National Power Control Center (NPCC) reveal.

The federal government has recently set up a computerised control room for real-time monitoring of power generation, supply and load-shedding across the country.

At the launch on Monday, Minister of State for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali had said that the total generation currently was about 11,000MW and there was a shortage of 3,100MW.

However, computerised records of the NPCC’s software reveal that the actual power shortfall stands at around 7000MW.

According to the NPCC records, total power generation through various sources was recorded at 10,893MW on Monday, while the demand for electricity on the same day around 12:45 pm was at 17,850MW, showing a shortfall of at least 6,957MW.


Related: Monitoring of generation, loadshedding begins


When asked, Minister of State for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali admitted that the actual shortfall stands at 7000MW as per the total electricity demand all over the country.

However, he said that the government calculates power shortfall from the quotas allocated to Discos, rather than the total demand. “If a Disco gets less from its allocated quota, we count it as power shortfall,” he said.

Secretary Water and Power Saifullah Chatha confirmed the numbers.

“Yes, these are the actual figures. This is the online and real-time data that tells the true picture about the load on system of the NTDC, including power generation and distribution,” he said.

According to the computerised data of the NPCC on Monday at 12:45 pm, electricity demand of PESCO was 1,832MW, while it was drawing only 1020MW.

Similarly, TESCO’s demand was at 229MW while it could draw only 46MW, and IESCO could draw only 1,125MW against a demand of 1,645MW.

GEPCO could draw only 907MW against demand of 1,509MW, while LESCO could draw 2,142MW against demand of 3,583MW.

FESCO was drawing 1,095MW against demand of 2,195MW, while MEPCO was drawing 1,398MW against demand of 2,995MW.

SEPCO could draw 529MW against 1,026MW demand, HESCO could draw 563MW against 852MW demand, and QESCO drew 530MW against a demand of 1,481MW.

Only K-Electric, previously known as KESC, could draw the 504MW against its demand of 504MW.

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