More than 4,500MW of electricity generation capacity remained unutilised on Thursday because of various technical, financial and fuel-related problems, with the total computed power shortage hovering at 4,800MW, which translated into about ten hours of loadshedding.
A government official told the media that directives issued by the prime minister to cut loadshedding to less than six hours a day could not be implemented because the actual electricity demand was considerably greater than what was computed by the authorities.
Showing data from the National Power Control Centre (NPCC), the official said the maximum average available capacity stood at around 10,915MW against a demand of about 15,750MW, as computed by the NPCC. The total requirement on the basis of demand of the distribution companies stood at more than 17,000MW.
