Pakistan government vows to end worst power cuts across country

Islamabad: Pakistan’s power division has vowed to end the spell of worst power outages across Pakistan and is working to ensure “uninterrupted power supply during and after Eid holidays.”

The power division said that it had injected about 2,500MW additional electricity into the power system to help end frequent power cuts. The “loadshedding has been brought to zero with effect from 05:00 am on May 1,” said Power Minister Engineer Khurram Dastgir Khan.

The Sharif government blamed the previous government for not fixing technical faults and ordering LNG, diesel and furnace oil which led to the non-functioning of 27 power units with a combined generation capacity of above 7,000 megawatts.

The power minister has sought immediate payment of Rs329 billion to operationalise about 7,900MW plants, currently out of the system primarily due to fuel shortage. The minister said the power sector’s circular debt stood at Rs2.46 trillion and about 5,740MW power plants were out of the system due to fuel shortages while another 2,156MW were not available due to routine maintenance.

The prime minister approved requests of the power division for the diversion of natural gas from fertiliser plants and captive power plants of the industrial sector to run more power plants during Eid days. Less commercial activities and closure of offices and schools on Eid would also reduce the electricity demand.

During the last two weeks, Pakistanis have experienced long power outages as temperatures in some parts of Pakistan soared above 48°C. The sweltering heat and unannounced power curts during the month of Ramadan made the almost 15-hour fasting even more challenging. The electricity crisis worsened during the unexpected heatwave in the month of April as the power shortfall reached 7,468MW, resulting in long hours of about 6 to 18 hours of power outages a day in several regions of rural and urban Pakistan, according to local media.