Staff Reporter Lahore
The long-duration power outages continued to hit the country on Thursday amid extremely hot weather conditions, leaving people at the mercy of pitiless heatwave.
The power crisis has gotten worse, with load-shedding extending up to several hours at a stretch in different cities because the country is facing an electricity shortfall of somewhere between 7,000 and 8,000 megawatts and so unannounced load-shedding has reached its peak in Punjab, including Lahore.
Due to a mudslide at the Tarbela Dam, power generation has been stopped and machinery has also likely been damaged. According to sources, it will take time for power generation to be up and running again at the Tarbela Dam.
According to officials of the Lahore Electric Supply Company, the demand for electricity in LESCO has exceeded 5,000 megawatts and the power supply is close to 4,000 MW, while the shortfall has exceeded 1,000 MW which has worsened the power supply situation in rural and small towns.
Due to the power crisis, besides Lahore, long hours of load-shedding is also taking place in other cities, including Islamabad, Peshawar and Karachi.
Power supply to Sector G6-13 of Islamabad was cut off last night, while power supply to the suburbs in Peshawar was also cut. The duration of the power cut reached 18 hours.
Prolonged power outages have also become a norm in Karachi and power remained suspended for four hours in many areas of the city Wednesday night.
Power generation has started from two more units at the Tarbela hydel power station, says the Water and Power Development Authority spokesperson. He said hydropower generation will reach about 6000 MW in peak hours.
