New Delhi: As disruptions continue unabated due to the war in West Asia, Pakistan is reeling under a severe energy crisis. To tackle the situation, the government has now announced that electricity supply will be suspended for about two hours every evening.
The plan to cut power for two hours is part of the austerity steps being carried out by Pakistan to handle the rising energy cost sparked by the war between US and Iran, Bloomberg reported.
Reduced hydropower generation
As per the report, which cited a Pakistani government statement, power demand grows exponentially between 5pm and 1am, partly because of the reduced hydropower generation.
The potential shortfall will have to be bridged through fossil fuels that have become more costly after the US-Iran conflict hampered energy supplies.
The Pakistan government is trying to handle the high load during the peak demand period to ensure that the power prices do not increase further.
The distribution firms have been ordered to inform consumers in advance about any scheduled loadshedding, and avoid any unplanned power cuts, the report added.
Earlier in the week, Pakistan’s National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) had declared a rise in electricity tariffs by Rs 1.42 per unit to adjust monthly fuel cost.
‘Couldn’t sleep entire night’
A few days back, a report in Dawn said that urban areas in Lahore are witnessing power cuts for up to 8 hours while rural areas are facing 12 to 16 hours of outages.
The report had said that the discoms in Lahore and adjoining areas started imposing unannounced, hourly power cuts, adding to the trouble of residents.
One of the residents was quoted as saying by Dawn that he couldn’t sleep the entire night because it was the “worst-ever loadshedding”.
He said: “The whole night we couldn’t sleep due to worst-ever loadshedding that remained continued on hourly basis. Similarly, Tuesday was also another terrible day, as we witnessed absence of light for prolonged hours from morning to evening.”
Residents in Karachi have hit the streets to protest against the frequent power outages. In Abbottabad too, people protested outside the offices of a state-owned natural gas supplier to vent their angst over gas and electricity crunch.