Lahore Electricity Supply Company (Lesco) continues to face 1,000MW electricity shortfall in the supply and demand despite increased generation by hydel power plants of Tarbela, Mangla and Ghazi Barotha after regular water outflows from Tarbela and Mangla Reservoirs.
Lesco spokesman, Javed Ahmad Khan told Business Recorder that the national grid is transmitting 1,300MW electricity to them against the demand of 2,300MW for industrial, commercial and domestic consumers. Lesco is responsible for supplying electricity to its 3.4 million industrial, commercial and domestic connections in the most populated districts of Lahore, Sheikhupra, Nankana, Okara and Qasur. It is carrying out eight-hour load-shedding in the urban and 11 hours shutdown in the rural areas under its operational jurisdiction, he added.
Vice chairman FPCCI Standing Committee on Textiles, Mian Faraz Alam told this scribe that due to prolonged electricity shutdowns, textile industry production has decreased by 50 percent during the past three months. This has resulted in substantial fall in exports, lay off of 50 percent work force and acute financial problems for industrialists, he added. Alam, who runs a big spinning textile mill and two tanneries in the industrial areas here, proposed that government could suspend 'captive power, gas' supply to the industry.
But he said it must ensure 24 hour uninterrupted transmission of electricity to the sector for the survival of manufacturing units. He revealed that though Lesco has promised to continuously supply 12 to 13-hour electricity during the day to industries, yet it quite often switches off power under the excuses of maintenance of gridlines/load management and unscheduled outages by the national grid.
Energy sector experts say Pakistan is presently facing 40 percent deficit in the generation and demand of electricity that has slowed down the industrial, especially export-oriented textile production and commercial activities across the country.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.