LESCO welcomes Zardari with no load shedding

[LRE]

LESCO welcomes Zardari with no load shedding

* Officials claim they were directed by senior WAPDA officials to halt load shedding for elections
* PEPCO official says change in weather has reduced shortfall in city

By Hasan Ali

LAHORE: The Lahore Electric Supply Company (LESCO) has welcomed the election of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari as President of Pakistan by suspending load shedding in almost all areas of the city during the last 48 hours.

Sources within LESCO told Daily Times that senior officials of the Water and Power Ministry had asked the company on Saturday to reduce load shedding to provide citizens with some relief. They said that ministry had also received directives from the federal government to suspend load shedding on the day of the presidential election. The company had chalked out a plan to suspend load shedding throughout Saturday and Sunday even if the weather had not changed on Friday, they added.

“The weather was also very pleasant a few days ago, but the load shedding was not reduced at the time. In addition to the scheduled load shedding, the unscheduled load shedding had resulted in there being more than six hours of load shedding in most areas of the city,” said Mehreen Raza, a resident of the Defence Housing Authority (DHA). She claimed that the government had the ability to generate extra power to meet the demand, but due to the lethargic attitude of senior officials of the government and the relevant ministry, they failed to provide any relief to the masses. Mehreen also alleged that the government had purposely manufactured the energy crisis, adding that if the government truly wanted to provide relief to the masses, it could do so with ease as the Water and Power Development Authority had the ability to generate the electricity needed.

Nice weather: However, the Pakistan Electric Power Company (PEPCO) refuted the claim that Zardari’s election had anything to do with the reduced load shedding. PEPCO Energy Management and Conservation Director General Tahir Bisharat said that the change in weather had reduced the shortfall in the city, resulting in no load shedding. He said that the load shedding was reduced on Thursday night, however, the practice had continued on that day because the main electric supply wire had broken down due to the heavy windstorm and around 90 feeders were affected.

Bisharat said that most people had switched off their air conditioners with the change in weather, resulting in savings of 3,300 megawatts. He said the system had also saved another 700 megawatts from tube wells. “If the weather returns to normal, load shedding will resume as normal to control the shortfall,” he added.

Most citizens, however, don’t believe this argument. Ghulam Abbas, a resident of Gulberg, said that if WAPDA or PEPCO officials claimed that the load shedding had ended due to the recent rains, they what excuse did they have for the continued load shedding when similar weather was observed three weeks ago.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp...008_pg13_1