- Hydroelectric production amounts to 6,000 MW: Minister of Energy.
- Leghari says the government is using expensive fuel to stabilize supplies.
- Total electricity production amounts to 32,000 MW, according to the minister.
Energy Minister Awais Ahmed Khan Leghari said on Friday that power load management had ended in the country following the arrival of liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies, warning that reliance on expensive fuels could place a financial burden on consumers.
At a press briefing, he said Pakistan had received LNG shipments a day earlier, allowing authorities to restore normal electricity supplies.
Leghari expressed confidence that unless unexpected technical problems arise in transmission lines, consumers should not experience any more power outages.
The minister was referring to the LNG carrier Seapeak Magellan, which docked at the Pakistan GasPort terminal and started supplying regasified LNG (RLNG) into the national grid.
Carrying approximately 140,000 cubic meters of LNG, the vessel docked at the terminal operated by Pakistan GasPort Consortium Limited on Thursday morning, News reported.
The cargo – arranged by TotalEnergies at a price of $18.40 per mmbtu – marks the first LNG shipment to reach the country since a cargo arrived from the United States a few weeks earlier.
Government sources revealed that efforts were underway to arrange delivery of another LNG cargo between May 10 and 12, according to the ministry report. News.
Meanwhile, the energy minister said the government had to buy expensive LNG as gas supplies to Qatar were suspended due to the war in the Middle East.
Leghari said the recent outages were a temporary challenge faced by the public, mainly due to a shortage of gas.
He noted that consumers had experienced load shedding over the last 13-14 days due to supply constraints, but timely measures helped restore balance to the system.
Highlighting the improvements, he said hydropower generation had increased to around 6,000 megawatts from nearly 1,000 megawatts previously, helping to stabilize supply.
Leghari stressed that water releases from dams depended on the requirements determined by relevant authorities and provincial needs.
Furthermore, he explained that expensive oil-fired plants and other fuel-using facilities were also being operated to make up the deficit.
The minister said generating electricity using diesel or oil to completely eliminate load shedding would have significantly increased costs, adding that the government would make every effort to protect consumers from expensive electricity.
Leghari also clarified that the country’s total electricity production was around 32,000 megawatts, not 46,000 megawatts as is sometimes believed.
The minister expressed hope that transmission lines would remain trouble-free to maintain uninterrupted supply and said future load shedding could be avoided through proactive planning.
