Loadshedding may be less severe this year

Magnitude of power load shedding may be less severe this year against last two years due to an addition of some 3,500MW electricity to the power generation system. Pakistan Electric Power Company (Pepco) is likely to get 2,500MW with the entry of eight Rental Power Plants (RPPs) and another 8 Independent Power Producers (IPPs) to the system, starting from end of March until June 2010.
Director General (DG) Pepco Mohammad Khalid told Business Recorder that the Pepco is expecting saving of some 1100MW out of its energy conservation campaign. Therefore, he said, total impact of both new RPPs and IPPs besides the energy conservation campaign would be around 3,500MW, which would lessen the magnitude of load shedding in coming summer.
It may be noted that the power generation system registers a direct hit of some 5000MW with the functioning of Air Conditioners and other electric appliances in the country. It is likely to be overcome handsomely through above given measures, said Khalid.
It may further be noted that the power generation system was presently facing a shortage of 2,751MW because of dead levels at both Mangla and Tarbela dams. The Pepco DG said both the Mangla and Tarbela were generating only 396MW and 583MW electricity respectively at present due to slow snow melting at the hilltops.
However, he added in the same breath that the water level at Mangla dam starts rising until end of March traditionally that would improve the power generation accordingly. Regarding present load shedding, he said a good number of IPPs were shut down due to annual maintenance. These included Kapco I, III, VI, X111, XIV and XV besides the Hubco unit I respectively.
He said the government's decision of releasing water from both Mangla and Tarbela for paddy crop resulted into dead levels at these dams, which were already facing constraints due to less number of rains in hilly areas resulting into negligible snow melting. He further clarified that the Pepco has never objected the daylight saving idea and press reports suggesting a rejection of the idea of putting the clocks ahead by one hour was totally baseless.