LAHORE - With the rise in fog, the Lahore Electric Supply Company has increased the duration of power loadshedding, as the shortfall has jumped to more than 1000MW after the closure of Balloki, Nishat and Nishat Chunian power plants in suburbs of Lahore, causing an overall shortfall of 4,000MW in the national grid, official sources said.
Consumers from different parts of the city claimed they were facing severe power tripping and short-hour outages on a regular basis since early morning of Wednesday. They complained that there has been no respite from power outages even in winter. They were facing continuous tripping and breakdowns across the provincial capital. Citizens lamented that loadshedding is being done under the guise of technical faults, line losses and increase in electricity demand. Almost half of the city continued to remain disturbed particularly Sammanabad, Johar Town, Iqbal Town, Fatehgarh, Ghaziabad, Kot Lakhpat, Johar Town, Faisal Town, walled city, Mozang, Garhi Shahu, Model Town, Multan Road areas and Ferozepur road localities. Residents said they are facing a lot of problems due to the suspension of electricity supply.
They asked the government to revamp distribution companies along with their transmission lines. Govt should upgrade the entire transmission system for smooth power supply, they added.
According to LESCO officials, the production of electricity was reduced mainly due to fog. The production capacity of Guddu, Bhakkar and Balloki power plants has significantly decreased, causing an electricity breakdown in Lahore. Officials said that the power production has also been affected due to lack of supply of RLNG and closing of canals, causing significant cut in hydel generation.
They said that LESCO’s power supply has been hindered due to harsh weather as well as shortfall, as the distribution company needs around 2000MW of electricity to fulfill the demand. LESCO is resorted to conduct load management of around 1000MW. LESCO officials said that the engineers are working to restore electricity.