Electricity shortfall reaches 6,500 MW

LAHORE: The electricity shortfall in the country has exceeded 6,500 MW which has led to an increase in the duration of outages.

Between 11 to 20 hours of electricity outages are being experienced as generation at several power houses has decreased due to a lack of gas.

At present the demand for electricity is 14,500 MW while supply is 8,500 MW. Officials from PEPCO complain that power companies are not being paid their dues nor are they being supplied adequate amounts of oil. According to officials the Finance and Water and Power Ministries have failed to control the energy crisis.

In Lahore, residents are facing power outages of between 11 to 20 hours. The situation is worse in rural areas where residents are only supplied electricity for 4 hours.

In Karachi, power outages are between 6 to 8 hours. Cities in Balochistan are facing outages of 10 to 12 hours while rural areas are without power for 16 to 20 hours.

Peshawar and other cities of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are without power for 12 hours while rural areas are only being supplied electricity for 4 hours.