Power shortage in Pakistan will grow to 2,500MW in 2 months

The current spate of energy shortage would more than double to 2500MW in the next two months and the deficit would remain unmet even in the coming winter when demand for power falls drastically.

There will be no let-up in the load-shedding

This has been estimated by the government and Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) on the basis of economic growth rate of 7-8 per cent and after taking into account planned investments for power generation and system improvement over the medium term.

Background discussions with government officials on these projections suggest that next capacity addition will be in January 2008 when two public sector projects of 80MW each start commercial operation. This (160MW) will be the only improvement in capacity throughout the financial year 2007-08 although demand during the period is likely to surge by more than 1000MW.

Dawn