Re: Load Shedding during Dictatorships
Electricity consumers seek Musharraf’s help**
****Thursday, January 03, 2008
By Our Correspondent
LAHORE
THE Lahore Electric Supply Company (LESCO) has failed to announce any schedule for power outages that occur in the provincial metropolis throughout the day causing massive inconvenience to people.
Unscheduled load-shedding started in the last week of December 2007 and the company was facing a shortage of some 756 MW on Wednesday. Sources in the company said the company had prepared a load management plan under which electricity supply to all commercial centres will be suspended at 8pm. Steel furnaces will face a power suspension from 4pm to 10pm and other industries must reduce their load by 25 per cent otherwise they will have to face power outages.
Power outages have paralysed life and people are bothered by power outages throughout the day. Hide and seek of electricity has also given rise to an acute water shortage in most areas as taps dry up when tube-wells operating stop functioning. People say that there should be no outages between 8pm to 9am because it ruins the day especially for those have to work during the day.
There is no single locality where power supply is smooth. Lahorites are facing power failures even during the wee hours of the day before sunrise. Power outages have hit everybody and only those who have power generators on standby are spared of this agony.
Majority of electricity consumers have called the ongoing spell of power outages the worst form of torture one can face in life. Moreover, outages trouble those the most who are sick or those who are nursing their dear ones.
Things become even more troubling when people have to get out of their beds midway between their sleep to take care of electric appliances such as refrigerators. Increasing sale of stabilisers, UPS systems and generators in electronics markets across the city speak volumes of the fact that electric appliances at homes are unable to bear the brunt of the power outages.
Residents of various city localities have appealed to President Musharraf, the caretaker Punjab chief minister and the Punjab governor to help alleviate the plight of citizens. Citizens have appealed to these people to take strict notice of the situation and issue directives to the Water and Power Development Authorities to go easy on subscribers. People have also urged WAPDA officials to opt for load-management in a more humane way and also ensure that the schedule of power outages was advertised in media so that people could prepare in advance.
When the day dawns, traders in the markets and industrialists are seen raising hue and cry over the ongoing load shedding and many of them say they have lost hopes that the problem will ever be fixed permanently. Business activity in the city is also affected adversely, with the result that the axe is consequently falling on hundreds of thousands of daily wagers looking for menial jobs.
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When contacted, the LESCO spokesman said the company was preparing a load management scheduled so that people could know the timings of power outages. He said that an abnormal increase in electricity growth rate and less electricity generation was the main cause of the mess.
Answering a question about closure of electricity supply to commercial centres after 8pm, he said the electricity supply to commercial centres will be terminated from 8pm till 8:30pm. He said commercial centres will have to face regular load shedding intervals too.