Power Minister Awais Leghari on Friday said the government had ended an electricity load management policy after receiving a shipment of liquefied natural gas (LNG), but warned that utilizing costly fuels risks placing a financial burden on consumers.
Speaking with media, he said Pakistan had received a LNG shipment a day earlier, allowing authorities to restore normal electricity supply. He said that, barring unexpected technical issues in transmission lines, consumers should not experience any more power outages.
Leghari noted the government had to purchase expensive LNG as gas supplies from Qatar remained suspended due to the war in the Middle East. He stressed the recent outages had been imposed on the public primarily due to the gas shortage.
Highlighting various measures taken to end the loadshedding, he said hydropower generation had increased to around 6,000MW from nearly 1,000MW earlier, contributing to stabilizing supply. He noted water releases from dams depended on requirements determined by relevant authorities and provincial needs.
Additionally, he said, expensive furnace oil and other fuel-based plants were also operated to overcome the shortfall. He maintained that generating electricity through diesel or furnace oil to end loadshedding would have significantly increased costs, adding the government would make all-out efforts to shield consumers from expensive electricity.
Leghari also clarified the country’s total electricity generation stood at around 32,000MW, not 46,000MW as sometimes reported. He hoped transmission lines would not develop any faults, allowing an uninterrupted supply of electricity for citizens.