Overview
- Following Thursday night’s higher reservoir releases to about 30,000 cusecs, hydropower rose by roughly 2,300 megawatts to around 4,100 megawatts, and officials cut scheduled outages to about 2.5 to 3 hours.
- Some regions still report six to seven hours of blackouts and business groups say factories are losing about eight hours a day, highlighting uneven relief across the grid.
- The shortfall stems from halted LNG imports after Qatar declared force majeure and from reduced dam releases for irrigation that sharply lowered hydropower.
- The government has ramped about 1,400 megawatts of furnace‑oil generation and delayed nuclear maintenance, and ministers say spot LNG is too expensive and bills may rise by about Rs1.30 per unit.
- Authorities expect evening load-shedding to continue until LNG flows return, with rooftop solar helping hold daytime supply steady and rising farm water needs likely to support more hydropower.