Overview
- Pakistan’s Power Division on Tuesday ordered a 2.25-hour rolling shutdown during the 5pm–1am peak window under a “peak relief strategy,” with K-Electric and HESCO exempt and utilities told to publish feeder schedules and avoid unscheduled cuts.
- By Wednesday, complaints from Lahore and across Punjab described blackouts far longer than the plan, with urban areas facing three to four hours and many rural communities reporting six to sixteen hours that disrupted sleep, water pumping, and daily work.
- Power Division data on Wednesday put demand near 18,000 MW against 13,500 MW in supply, while one estimate cited a 6,500 MW deficit later in the day as hydropower fell after dark and the ministry apologized for “additional load management.”
- Officials link the gap to low water releases that cut hydropower, scarce gas for RLNG plants after Qatar told Islamabad no LNG cargoes until May 9, and a furnace-oil price jump that has made backup generation far more expensive.
- To blunt price shocks, the government says it diverted 80 MMCFD of local gas to power plants and claims the strategy could avoid roughly Rs3 per unit in higher tariffs, though a smaller increase near Rs1.5 per unit remains likely if fuel costs stay high.