LAHORE - The prolonged scheduled as well as unscheduled power outages have been hitting most parts of Punjab where up to 12 hours loadshedding continued in urban areas of big cities with no electricity in small cities, especially in rural areas.

The residents of small cities particularly of suburban areas have complained that they have virtually no electricity in their areas. Just after supply of one hour or two hours, power remains suspended continuously for five to eight hours, they said and added that up to 20 hours loadshedding is being carried out in far-flung areas which is out of focus of media.

Presently, other than big cites of Rawalpindi, Lahore, Multan, Gujranwala, Sialkot, Faisalabad etc including whole Sindh, KP, Balochistan and most of the cities of South Punjab are suffering from up to 20 hours loadshedding. While there is no schedule of power supply in rural areas of these cities, sometimes power supply remains discontinued for the whole night and sometime for the daylong, residents complained.

According to officials, all distribution companies across the country is facing low allocation of power following breakdown of Hubco power plants along with tripping of 500kV Jamshoro transmission line two days earlier, disturbing the whole power distribution system. According to National Transmission and Dispatch Company (NTDC) officials, currently the electricity demand is 21,000MW and generation is just between 14,000MW and 15,000MW, touching the shortfall to 6000MW to 7000MW.

Same miserable condition of electricity supply is in rural areas of Lahore, Sheikhupura, Nankana, Kasur and Okara where shortfall has crossed 1200MW, resulting in loadshedding of 15 hours along with tripping, low voltage and prolonged breakdowns, causing damages to the home appliances.

With the increase in heat wave the power demand has jumped to 4,600MW while supply is not more than 3,300MW, resulting in shortage of 1200MW in Lesco jurisdiction.

The situation on Tuesday improved comparatively in urban areas of Lahore where loadshedding timing has now been reduced to 6-8 hours. Residents of Lahore also stated that they continued to face scheduled loadshedding besides shutdowns triggered by tripping and other system constraints and technical failure.