12-hour loadshedding on Mondays, Tuesdays for industry announced

LESCO has issued notice to industrialists for 12 hours power load shedding on Mondays and Tuesdays amidst a hope on the part of Pepco spokesman that power generation would improve soon. The DG Pepco Ejaz Rafique Qureshi expressed the hope that the situation would be improved before Monday and there would be no need of 12 hours' load shedding for industry.
He admitted the fact that power situation remained dismal throughout Saturday but still expressed the hope that generation would be in a better position soon. It may be noted that the domestic consumers are likely to face another ordeal situation on Sunday (today), as added pressure of air conditioners would choke the system. The DG Pepco agreed with the fact and appealed to the domestic consumers for energy conservation.
According to him, it is worrisome that hydro-generation is catching up, putting the whole system under pressure. He said Mangla dam is not generating electricity up to the optimum level, leading to a depressing performance by the Ghazi Brotha dam as well.
It is worth noting that the thermal generation is also showing dismal performance due to short supply of fuel. However, said the DG Pepco, the PSO has assured of providing fuel to the thermal units and situation would improve gradually. But, it is irony that all such claims of Pepco officials prove false at the end of the day. It seems that the power authorities are themselves unaware of the reality.
The former Minister for Power kept on making false statements throughout 2008 and 2009 that power load shedding would be overcome by December of both years. But all in vain, as no end to load shedding could take place by the given time. Majority of the critics point out with a wonder that how a minister could be in dark over ongoing developments under his ministry.
Again, now the Pepco officials assured of uninterrupted power supply during Sehr and Iftar. It was repeated by each and every government functionary until the anvil of the holy month. Once it was there, all tall claims proved house of cards and the consumers are clueless about the actual state of affairs.
Interestingly, the Pepco authorities are suggesting an improvement in the situation on daily basis since the start of Ramazan. But it is getting from bad to worse with every passing day and no immediate improvement is likely to take place in near future.
Meanwhile, power supply to industrial sectors remained dismal on Friday as well. Forced closures have resulted into massive lay off in manufacturing units. Power supply to the textile industry is under threat, which is already passing through unprecedented gas load shedding during summer season. Reports regarding 12 hours' load shedding during next two days has again put the productions down and massive lay off is expected again.