Minister of State for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali on Saturday said that all available resources are being utilized to overcome power shortage in the country. Talking to the media during his visit to Faisalabad Electric Supply Company (Fesco), he said, "The government is focusing on law and order, development and early completion of power projects."
The Minister termed soaring power cuts as 'howl' and expressed indignant over media coverage of the matter. He claimed that, "Electricity shortfall is fluctuating between 3000MW to 4000MW whereas stats shared by ministry of water and power showed shortfall of 5000MW."
"Currently, total production of electricity has trimmed down to 9400MW whereas the demand rests at 14,700MW," he said. He said, "Hydro-electricity is being affected the most from the lack of water reservoirs. The hydropower generation capacity is 6500MW in the country but at present only 1900MW is being produced."
"The private power houses are providing 5500MW electricity whereas 2000MW is being attained from other sources," he added. "In the aftermath of the situation, urban areas are facing outage for 8-10 hours whereas those residing in rural areas suffer power cut off for 10-14 hours," he said.