Pakistan witnesses record Power Shortage

July 19, 2021

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[Pakistan is currently witnessing its largest-ever Power deficit as Fuel shortages and technical closures of Major Power Plants are leading to severe constraints in energy supplies as consumers suffer from harsh wet conditions across the country.

A senior official of the Energy Ministry has said that unavoidable circumstances forced utility companies to conduct power outages ranging from 1,000 to 2,000 MW during peak hours. This does not include sharing the load between 2,500 and 4,000 MW based on the technical capacity of the relevant authorities to remedy the deficit.

Furthermore, fuel shortages have also led to Power plants remaining idle. LNG offer for two ships was canceled in the second and third weeks of July at $ 11.77 and $ 11.66 per MMBTU, and one was delivered four days later priced at $ 12.78/MMBTU and one ship completely eliminated, leading to a gas shortage in the system.

In addition, electricity production at Mangla Dam has declined, while electricity production at Tarbela Dam has not recovered as expected, as per the sources.

Furthermore, a large 1,300-megawatt Hub-China power plant went down due to technical issues.

The overall system capacity shortfall has been between 4,000 MW to 6,000 MW over the past two days, as humidity has increased almost across the country.

Total LNG being received in the system stood at 740 million cubic meters per day (one million cubic meters per day) as compared to the demand of 950 million cubic meters on Saturday. The supply increased to 780 million cubic meters per day on Saturday. The total available capacity of the system during peak hours was approximately 23,000 MW on Sunday when the estimated demand exceeded 27,000 MW.