LAHORE - Water and Power Development Authority has started squeezing the demand for reducing electricity frequency to put aside 700MW besides some of the IPPs managed fuel to run 5 units out of 24 closed units, sources told The Nation on Monday. Sources said that the electricity shortfall on Monday recorded as 5,948MW after hitting the record high-level of 7,075MW owing to the forced shutdown of more than 24 units of power generation plants on Friday. According to data of electricity distribution companies (DISCOs), the shortfall recorded at 6,119MW as 8,529MW was supplied to these distribution companies against their demand of 14,648MW. The break up shows that Lahore Electric Supply Company (LESCO) recorded 971MW of shortage against the demand of 2,910MW 1,939MW, which was given 971MW followed by Multan Electric Supply Company (MEPCO) 1063MW short supply against the demand of 2513MW which was supplied 1450MW. The Faisalabad electric supply company (FESCO) was the third with the shortfall of 882MW, as the company in need of 1,985MW and 1,103MW was given followed by Gujranwala Electric Supply Company (GEPCO), which recorded 771MW shortfall against the required demand of 1,632MW, however, 861MW was supplied. Whereas Haiderabad Electric Company (HESCO) Peshawar Electric Company (PESCO), Quetta Electric Company (QESCO) and Islamabad Electric Company (IESCO) registered 650, 673, 517 and 592MW shortfall against the demand of 1,921, 1,343, 1,047 and 1,297 simultaneously with the respective demand of 1,271, 670, 530 and 592MW of electricity. Almost all the public power generation companies, which already were running under capacity stayed shutdown for want of fuel. They said that the only 362MW AES Lalpir and 365MW AES Pak-Gen Limited could manage to get fuel in addition to the country's largest IPP with a capacity of 1,600MW, Kot Addu Power Company (KAPCO) could get fuel to start its one unit. However, others plants who already were running at half of their capacity, including 120MW Japan, 586 Uch Power Limited, kept on running at half of their capacity. 117MW Southern Electric Power Company (Sepcol), whereas, on the other hand, the WAPDA own generation units stayed cut off the system. The total generation capacity of Genco-III power plants, which is 1,530MW at present, consists of TPS Muzafargarh, SPS Faisalabad, GTPS Faisalabad, NGPS Multan and GTPS Shahdara. They stopped contributing their share in generation system with fuel as main problems besides GENCO-I, Jamshoro Power Company Limited, with the maximum load of 671MW. Similarly, GENCO-II, with maximum load of 1,222MW has also stopped contributing. The sources said that the IPPs had not been paying attention to the government warnings and kept on running their units with the furnace oil stocks only for a couple of days' consumption on the excuse of outstanding default on the part of WAPDA. This situation caused delay in payments. The sources quoting the IPPs response to the government said that these companies were currently relying mainly on short-term borrowings to plug their working capital gap whereas WAPDA presently owed Rs 28 billion. The sources said that the IPPs responded to the government citing furnace oil import, which had been increased by 68 per cent amid high demand from thermal power plants, including the IPPs. They said that given the growing appetite for power in the country, reliance on thermal power generation had been on the rise for the last two years with its greater usage in thermal power generation. They believe that the demand for furnace oil is likely to rebound till September for thermal power plants, owing to restrictive gas supplies followed by the IPPs spike for electricity generation during summer, which reached by 9.1 million tonnes by the end of June 2008. The director public relations WAPDA, Raza Siddiqi on the other hand said that the shortfall was recorded as 4,497MW however, he could not tell the reason of the decrease in the shortfall. When his attention was drawn towards the DISCOs shortfall data, he showed his ignorance in this regard but did not denied the IPPs plants' closure. DISCOs Demand MW Supply MW Shorfall MW 1. MEPCO 2513 1450 1063 2. LESCO 2910 1939 971 3. FESCO 1985 1103 882 4. GEPCO 1632 861 771 5. PESCO 1343 670 673 6. HESCO 1921 1271 650 7. IESCO 1297 705 592 8. QESCO 1047 530 517 Grand Total 14648 8529 6119