The gap between electricity demand and supply widened by further 500 MW as production of major source of power generation, hydel power houses, decreased by 500 MW on Sunday after fall in river water flow of mighty Indus and Jhelum at the end of monsoon system in the country.
It may be added that Pepco's hydel power houses at Tarbela, Ghazi Barotha, Mangla, Warsak, Chashma, etc, were providing more than 6,600 MW cheap electricity during peak flows in the rivers earlier this month, which has now come down to 6,100 MW. The hydel power generation will further decrease with the setting in of winter season when river flows would reduce to a few thousand cusecs.
Meanwhile Pakistan Electric Power Co (Pepco) has not been able to sort out its financial problems with the independent power producers (IPPs) who had threatened to stop production if their financial liabilities were not cleared by Pepco.
Energy sector sources told this scribe that Pakistan has electricity generation capacity of 19,000 MW but due to circular debts, and oil and gassupply problems, it has been producing maximum 14,000 MW electricity in summer, of which 6,600 MW were contributed by the hydel power houses owned and controlled by Pepco. A Pepco spokesman told newsmen that all power generation units were producing 12,889 MW electricity, against the demand of 17279 MW, leaving a shortfall of 4,390 MW on Sunday.
He said that hydel power houses contributed 6,164 MW, thermal 1307 MW, IPPs 5298 MW and RPPs 120 MW to the national grid. Electricity distribution companies resorted to long hours of load shedding to manage the shortfall.
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