Electricity crisis worsens as shortfall reaches 6800MW

LAHORE: The energy crisis in Pakistan has deepened as the electricity shortfall widened to over 6,800 megawatts, causing power outages of five to six hours in cities and 8 to 10 hours in rural areas, ARY News reported on Thursday.

According to sources, the demand in the country for electricity has surged to 28,200 megawatts while the power supply is 21,800 megawatts.

Sources told ARY News that several power plants have been shut as Ministry of Power Division failed to meet the shortage of oil and gas. Meanwhile, the government has shut down expensive power plants in a bid to reduce circular debt.

Sources further said that the power plants would remain shut till September. Moreover, the shortfall has resulted in six hours of load-shedding in urban centres and 8 hours of power outages in rural areas.

A day earlier, the National Electric Power Regulation Authority (NEPRA) approved the federal government’s request to increase the power tariff for Karachi by Rs 0.57.

According to details, NEPRA announced its reserved decision to increase the power tariff by 0.57 on Wednesday. KE and DISCO users will have to pay an additional Rs0.57 in August, September and October, the NEPRA notification said.

NEPRA decision read that the increase would be applied to all kind of users of Karachi except Life Line users. DISCO users have already paid the increased tariff, NEPRA added.