The country's power shortfall has reportedly crossed 8,000MW due to massive demand touching 21,000MW during peak hours and people in rural areas are just getting electricity for 6-8 hours in 24 hours. These demand statistics are excluding Karachi and adjacent areas which fall under the jurisdiction of K-Electric. Ms Nargis Sethi has been given the task of improving the power sector but it is a challenging task and analysts are dubious about her success as she cannot add to supply which is less than 15,000MW.
Well-informed sources told Business Recorder that power demand on Thursday at 1.40 pm was about 20,500MW against allocated quota of 13,000MW and drawn 12,478MW. This demand included 650MW allocated to K-Electric. National Transmission and Dispatch Company (NTDC) which reportedly understates demand figures claimed on Thursday that at 1 pm generation was 14,000MW, of which share of hydel was 5170MW, thermal 1930MW and IPPs 6,900MW. According to NTDC, total demand was 17,300MW which was 3,000MW less than actual demand, independent sources claimed. The government claims that it added about 2000MW electricity to the national grid. However, the situation of electricity in small cities and rural areas is the same as during the PPP government.