Islamabad, Feb 26 (TNS): The Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) has warned the government that low water flows in rivers, shutting of power plants, technical hitches and increasing petroleum prices could have a negative bearing on the overall power generation that may accentuate with rising temperatures after mid-March.
The warning comes despite repeated claims by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz-led federal government to have overcome the power crisis, power cuts and load-shedding across the country by adding over 1100 megawatts electricity to the national grid.
The federal and provincial governments have been working on different power projects with and some have been made functional while work on the others is underway.
Though the government has launched various power projects under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor project, it has failed to lay high-voltage transmission lines to bear the weight of the extra or additional electricity.
Under the CPEC, the federal government with the assistance of a Chinses company has been working on an 878-kilometer transmission line from Lahore to Matiari in Sindh and the project, once completed, will have the capacity to transmit and carry about 4000 megawatts of electricity.
Similarly, another transmission line from Port Qasim in Karachi to Faisalabad is also part of the CPEC project and work on it is going on.
Recently, Planning Commission Secretary Sohaib Siddiqui told American experts consisted of a working group for energy that industries in Pakistan were being provided uninterrupted electricity, leading to an increase of over 35 percent in industrial production in the last nine years.
Despite the government claim of ending load-shedding, power cuts and outages continue unabated across the country including in Islamabad despite the low demand necessitated by weather conditions.
The government has been claiming to end power cuts by the mid of 2018 and some ministers and officials boasting to export the surplus electricity to other countries, however, major power projects under the CPEC were yet to be completed.
The power generation has increased by almost over 4 percent in the last few years as the country has diversified its energy producing capacity. The government has invested in coal, wind, solar and other sources of energy to overcome the energy crisis that has taken a toll on its economy and industries. According to experts, 2018 is probably going to be another tough year for the citizens in terms of power supply situation as fewer rains and a negligible snow have fallen on the upper parts of the country this year. The country is also heavily relying on hydel electricity and it is produced to the maximum capacity when snow melts and rivers flow abundantly.
