The federal government said on Monday that electrical load-shedding will be reduced from today to three and a half hours, promising the people that load-shedding will be further reduced in July as coal plant production increases.
Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Khurram Dastgir, Marriyum Aurangzeb, and other federal ministers from the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) made the announcement during a news conference here on Monday.
According to Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, load-shedding would be decreased from today to three and a half hours and from June 16 to less than three hours. He also indicated that from June 30, the government would cut load shedding to one and a half to two hours only, and would be able to further reduce load shedding.
Abbasi addressed the news conference by outlining the causes of the energy shortage, blaming the previous administration. He claimed that during the summer, the country’s electrical consumption topped 25,000MW.
“Today, we are generating 21,000MW, which means we have a 4,000MW deficiency,” adding that the supply and demand contrast required a little more than four hours of load-shedding to close.
We’ve agreed to cut load-shedding to three and a half hours starting tomorrow (Tuesday),” he added, adding that more money had been paid and oil had been provided to achieve this. “By tomorrow, we hope to have strict load-shedding to 3.5 hours.”
Defense Minister Khawaja Asif urged over the weekend that the country take advantage of the “365 days of sunlight” and run markets during the day rather than the traditional “opening markets at 1 pm and closing them at 1 am.”
“Our marketplaces are open from 1 p.m. until 1 a.m. Asif had tweeted late Saturday night, “This [situation] is found nowhere in the world.” “God has blessed our country with 365 days of brightness, yet we run businesses in the dark.”
With Karachi excluded, 3,500MW of power may be saved if markets determine the correct business hours. He has previously said that “difficult conditions need difficult decisions.”
