Pakistan’s prime minister orders power outages limited to two hours
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on September 11 in Islamabad ordered that power outages lasting more than two hours must not be allowed in any area of the country. He issued the order during a meeting on electricity load management, Dawn reports, citing the prime minister’s office.
Gas supply disruptions
During the meeting, Sharif expressed dissatisfaction over the growing number of power outages across the country. According to the prime minister’s office, supplies of regasified liquefied natural gas, or RLNG, were affected by the situation in the Middle East and tensions in the Strait of Hormuz.
As a result, electricity generation declined, and the authorities resorted to load management to maintain a balance between supply and demand. The prime minister ordered immediate measures to eliminate disruptions in RLNG supplies and make effective use of all available resources.
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Committees to review complaints
Shehbaz Sharif also ordered that consumer complaint committees be established at electricity distribution companies within a week. They are to review appeals concerning electricity transmission and supply. The committees were instructed to include representatives of the public.
As the publication notes, in July the Pakistani government purchased five expensive RLNG cargoes on the spot market. The cost of generating electricity using RLNG in July rose by a record 242% to 47.4 Pakistani rupees per unit of electricity, compared with less than 14 rupees in April.
