Pepco boosts electricity supply to system

[LahoreEstate]

ISLAMABAD: As summer approaches the electricity shortage continues to rise in the country, which has now crossed 2,000 Mega Watts in the evening time during peak load, but officials say more than 500MW will be added to the system from Friday.

‘The electricity generation in the country stands at around 10,250MW but the demand exceeds 12,250MW,’ said Tahir Basharat Cheema spokesman for Pakistan Electric Power Company (PEPCO)

Cheema said that when translated into time the current shortage means 6 to 8 hours of load shedding daily in various parts of country.

‘The consumers will get a relief of one hour when the additional 500MW is received in the national grid from Friday,’ he added.

However the PEPCO officials say that additional electricity will be added from Chashma Nuclear Power Plant phase-1 (ChashNuPP-1) and Kot Adu Power plant (KAPCO).

Sources in Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) told Dawn that ChashNuPP-1 will be operational from Friday generating 325MW electricity; the plant had been closed since 20days due to technical problems in a special motor responsible for providing cooling to the reactor.

Besides 200MW additional power will be available from KAPCO with the resumption of furnace oil supplies by the PSO. The furnace oil supply was disturbed as the motor pushing oil through the local pipeline to KAPCO developed a technical problem.

PSO officials said that furnace oil is being supplied to the power plant through tankers but the pipeline will be operational by Friday adding 200MW to its generation capacity.

KAPCO is country’s largest Independent Power Producer (IPP) with installed capacity to produce 1,600MW.

The officials of National Power Control Centre said that the key reason for power shortage is low generation from the hydel source, which stands at around 2,500MW.

With wheat harvest about to begin in Punjab, all water releases to the province have been stopped.

The NPCC official figures said that the average day time power shortage in the county was around 1,000MW.

While the electricity shortage after sunset exceeds 2,000MW due to lighting by the commercial and domestic consumers.

He said that the only short term measure to reduce load shedding is electricity conservation.

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn...system--za