Shortfall of 1150MW persists in Lahore: no let-up in power outages even after increase in temperature

The Pakistan Electric Power Co (Pepco) managed to produce 10,000MW electricity on Sunday but the demand spiked to 14,000MW with increase in temperature in the country forcing people to brace long loadshedding hours.
It was a closed holiday, with less commercial and industrial activity, yet there was no let up in the electricity cuts, 10-12 hours in urban areas and 16 hours in the rural areas as mercury moved above 33 degree Celsius in the plains of Punjab.
Lesco spokesman Javed Ahmad Khan told Business Recorder that a shortfall of 1150MW in the demand and supply is persisting in the Lahore region comprising Lahore, Okara, Sheikhupura, Nankana Sahib and Kasur districts despite increased power production The frequent and long electricity outages also badly affected supply of clean drinking water to the people since Wasa could not run its tubewells without electricity.
The energy experts say that the cheap generation of hydel power also remains stagnant for river water flows upstream the Tarbela dam on river Indus and Mangla dam over river Jhelum are still not significantly picking up to put all the hydel power units into operation, which have the capacity to contribute 6,500MW electricity to the National Grid Station.
Meanwhile, the meteorological department in its weather report has said that mainly dry weather is expected in most parts of the country today (Monday). However dust-thunderstorm/light rain is likely to occur at Isolated places of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Northeast Punjab, Northeast Balochistan, Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan. Dust raising wind is likely to blow over Multan, Bahawalpur, Sargodha, D G Khan, D I.Khan and Sukkar divisions.