Power outages in Makran region owing to short supply from Iran

ISLAMABAD: Energy Minister Hammad Azhar Thursday said that the coastal areas of Balochistan facing power load shedding owing to shortage of electricity in Iran.

Azhar said that Gwadar, Turbat and other parts of Makran region facing power outages as they are not linked with the national electric grid. These areas depend on the import of electricity from Iran, he said.

“The government has raised the matter with Iran and requested them to ensure power supply to the routine level,” the minister said.

The work to connect the coastal areas with the national grid has been in progress, which required a long-distance transmission line, he said.

“This transmission line project will be completed within two years,” energy minister added.

Recently three districts of Makran division faced prolonged outage of power owing to suspension of supply from Iran without prior intimation.

It is pertinent to mention here that Pakistan and Iran were entered into an agreement in year 2002, for supply of 34MW electricity, which was further increased by 30MW. Then another 30MW of electricity from Iran was inducted in the national grid in 2016 jacking up the electricity import from the country to 104MW.

Pakistan’s emerging port city of Gwadar has been located in Makran division of Balochistan, which requires increasing power supply to meet the needs of the developing port region.

Iran’s power supply is not optimally available due to the country’s own energy demand. The average supply from Iran hovers around 40-70 MW, according to some sources.