Govt admits up to seven hours of power outages

• Duration nearly three times more than what was announced earlier• Minister cites LNG import disruption, Middle East crisis as key factors• Shortfall estimated at 3,400MW• Demand spikes from 9,000MW to 20,000MW in days• Nuclear plant maintenance postponed to boost supply

ISLAMABAD: Power Minister Awais Leghari on Thursday confirmed six to seven hours of load management — almost three times higher than the government’s public commitment — citing a sudden surge in demand, non-availability of imported gas and lower water discharges for irrigation.

Speaking at a news conference, the minister said power shortfalls had been caused by disruptions to LNG imports due to the Middle East crisis and by lower provincial irrigation water requirements, both of which he said were beyond the government’s control. However, he insisted that the government was making every possible effort to minimise both outages and potential tariff increases arising from the use of expensive alternative fuels.

In this regard, he said the government had even postponed maintenance of nuclear power plants for a few weeks, with no scheduled shutdowns until July. He added that all available resources had been mobilised, including diplomatic channels, to secure fuel supplies through alternative LNG sourcing and diversion of local gas, while ensuring adequate availability for fertiliser production.

The minister said the country also witnessed unusual fluctuations in demand this month due to weather conditions, with the lowest demand of 9,000MW on April 9 and a peak of 20,000MW six days later, on April 15.

He said the situation would slightly improve in a day as discharges from dams had been increased by 15,000 cusecs to 25,000 cusecs, which would help enhance hydropower generation.

On the other side of the equation, hydropower sou­rces provided 3,200MW and 3,000MW from liquefied natural gas imports, leading to minuscule generation from furnace oil because it had a significant fuel-cost impact.

This year, however, all LNG-based plants with a capacity of 6,000MW remain mostly idle due to LNG import disruptions caused by the Middle East war. While LNG-based plants provide no more than 500MW and that too on local gas, hydropower supply also stood at 1,600MW,........

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