LAHORE, July 30: Hot and humid weather has increased power demand by 400 megawatt (MW) whereas drop in water discharge from the Mangla Dam has reduced power generation by 700MW, thus creating a shortfall of 1,100MW in the country.
According to Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) officials, the authority was getting 1,150MW from Mangla till a few days ago with a discharge of 45,000 cusecs, but Punjab reduced the discharge to 18,500 cusecs in the last week.
The drop in water discharge has reduced the average generation from the Mangla from 1,150MW to 450MW.
The authority had a surplus of some 300MW before the humid spell started, but the harsh weather has generated additional demand of 100MW.
On Monday, the shortfall shot up to 1,100MW. The authority managed to produce additional power in the peak hours by storing water during the day and discharging it in the evening, but the overall impact could not be mitigated in any substantive way.
Akram Arain, chief executive of the Lahore Electric Supply Company (Lesco), says the company is taking a hit of 150MW, but oppressive weather makes the situation worse. He denied that unscheduled loadshedding was being carried out, saying that every feeder was shut down twice a day for 30 minutes. But construction work interrupts power supply which is being carried out in some parts of the city, especially on Raiwind Road, Batapur, Wapda Town and Ferozepur Road.
“There is an overall power shortage in the country and occasional spells of harsh weather only underscore persistent deficit,” he said.
A former member of Wapda power said it was not only power deficit that hurt the consumers but inefficiency and selectively overloaded transmission system were also responsible for power failures.
Complaints ratio always increases substantially during the monsoon as humid weather spells test the transmission system, he said. Inefficiency in the staff also increases as humid saps energy of everyone, including employees of the distribution companies.
At present, most of the grid stations, mostly in load centres like Lahore and Faisalabad, are running 100 per cent during the peak hours. It exposes weak points of the system and makes it vulnerable to fluctuations, tripping and failures. These three factors make life miserable for consumer and multiply the cumulative effect, he says.