Addition of 7,750 MW power to national grid ensures great relief to masses

ISLAMABAD: The load-shedding situation in the country, compared to 2013 has very much been improved, as more than 7,750 MW generation capacity till now has been added in national power system.

The present government, after coming to power in 2013, initiated sincere and hectic efforts, due to which power generation capacity is continuously increasing and duration of load shedding is gradually decreasing in the country.

As a result duration of load-shedding remained only two hours for urban areas and 04 hours in rural areas. It is quite less as compared to previous years.

The year-wise table showing load-shedding details on Wednesday revealed during 2013 duration of load-shedding in urban areas was 06 hours, 05 hours in 2014, 06 hours in 2015, 06 hours in 2016 but now it is reduced to almost only two hours while some areas in different parts of the country including Islamabad are facing no load-shedding for last many weeks.

The load-shedding duration during 2013 in rural areas of the country was 08 hours, 08 hours in 2014, 08 hours in 2015, 08 hours in 2016 but now reduced to almost only 04 hours.

The load-shedding duration during 2013 for mix-industry of the country was 08 hours, 07 hours in 2014, 04 hours in 2015, no (nil) load-shedding in 2016 and now it has been reduced to only 02 hours with an objective to promote industrial production.

Moreover, load-shedding duration during 2013 for independent industry of the country was 08 hours, 10 hours in 2014, 04 hours in 2015 while since 2016 this area has been facing no (nil) load- shedding.

When contacted, official sources said due to increased generation capacity, no load-shedding has been carried out in the country from September 1 to 10. However, some DISCOs carried load-shedding due to their own system constraints, low recovery and high loss areas.

Meanwhile, residents of Capital Islamabad and even other parts of the country have lauded efforts of present government which has almost locked up the "load-shedding monster" in the bottle and introduced such projects to meet the growing energy demands for many coming years. The load-shedding during Summer 2017 remained under control as citizens in Capital have termed it a "great relief to them."

However, they were of the view that power tariffs also need rationalization and be set in accordance with purchase power of majority of people.