(MENAFN- The Peninsula) The current oil crisis in Pakistan has already brought down electricity generation by over 2,000MW, raising the deficit to 7,000MW and cutting supplies to half of the total demand of over 14,000MW. More power plants are likely to suspend working in a few days because they are running out of furnace oil, the power sector's managers warned yesterday.
To save domestic consumers, who are already facing around 12- hour outages, from further suffering, the managers have increased load shedding for the industry from four to 10 hours.
The four-hour gas supplies to the industry, which it got after the prime minister's intervention, also stopped as the government diverted gas to compressed natural gas (CNG) stations, spelling what industrialists called "disaster for them."
The government has also asked public sector companies to cut their generation to half because of paucity of fuel.
Yesterday, power companies were generating only 700MW against 1,400MW of a few days ago. The hydel component of the generation, on average, is already down to 800MW because of canal closure. Independent power producers cut their generation to 5,500MW from 6,500MW a few days ago.
"The overall situation has worsened and is deteriorating further," an official of the Pakistan Electric Power Company said.
The company is struggling to keep bigger plants like Hubco, Muzaffargarh and Jamshoro alive because, if they go down, the entire system would collapse.
The Guddu power plant has already been closed. If another major plant suspends working, it would be hard to maintain frequency of the system. It developed a major fault thrice and triggered three national breakdowns over the past few weeks.
"So, it is now a multidimensional struggle for the power managers: arranging oil for the companies lacking funds, keeping the system balanced under extreme conditions, constantly watching the plants to prevent any fluctuation and still taking popular flake for failing to do what people expected of them, the official said.
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