Contrary to official claims, the sectoral data shows that power situation worsened over the past one year as the power generation is now stuck at exactly where it was a year ago (around 14,500MW), but the demand increased by around 800MW, widening the gap between demand and supply which has caused an increase in loadshedding.
According to the system, demand-supply data prepared by Pakistan Electric Power Company (Pepco), the country on an average generated 14,424MW in July last year against the demand of 18,884MW, showing a gap of 4,460MW.
The peak demand-supply situation was slightly different. During 6pm to 11pm the total demand touched 20,012MW on July 30 and generation went up 16,170MW on that particular day. Otherwise, the generation remained well below 15,500MW throughout the month. The highest shortfall for the month was recorded on July 6 when it rose to 6,553MW — generation plummeted to 12,618MW against demand of 19,171MW.
During this year’s July so far, the maximum demand has touched 20,815MW and peak generation around 14,539MW, a deficit of around 6,276MW.