Hydel boost helps alleviate load shedding

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The output of hydropower increased due to a large rise in dam discharges in mid-April, mitigating but not eliminating the load shedding nationwide.

The Power Division reported Saturday that hydropower output reached 6,000 megawatts during peak hours Friday night, enabling authorities to restrict load management despite an increase in electrical demand.

A spokesperson said that higher hydel output was also helped by increased water discharges from Tarbela Dam during night hours. The entire installed hydroelectric capacity is about 11,500 megawatts, he said, adding that the higher generation also helped improve the stability of the national grid.

The spokesperson also added that roughly 500 megawatts of power from the southern region was sent to the central grid, including 100 megawatts extra with the help of better hydel output.

The power distribution firms had higher demand but were able to keep load management within one to two hours during peak times and outages were not more than two hours due to the rise in hydropower generation.

He added that economic load control on high loss feeders was being done as per policy having no relation with the peak hour load management.

The spokesperson also said power facilities with a combined capacity of 5,500 megawatts running on liquefied natural gas (LNG) were not generating electricity at the moment due to global supply difficulties.

“The availability of LNG and the additional increases in water releases will help to address the shortfall in power during the nighttime hours,” he said.