Power outages drop to under 3 hours as hydropower output surges

Pakistan’s power situation showed improvement after increased water releases from dams boosted hydropower generation, reducing daily outages across parts of the country.

A spokesperson for the power division said on Friday that load-shedding, which had stretched to around six hours a day, has now dropped to less than three hours following a sharp rise in electricity production from hydel sources.

Hydropower output climbed to 4,100 megawatts late on Thursday, up from about 1,800 megawatts before the additional water releases. The increase also helped ease pressure on the national grid and enabled the transmission of an extra 400 megawatts from southern regions.

The improvement comes after a difficult week in which the electricity shortfall had surged to 3,400 megawatts — roughly one-sixth of total demand — leading to prolonged outages of up to seven hours in parts of northern Pakistan and disruptions to telecom services.

Power Minister Awais Leghari said the shortages were largely caused by a 48 per cent year-on-year drop in hydropower generation. He explained that provinces had not been requesting water releases from reservoirs due to recent heavy rains, which had reduced irrigation needs.

He added that hydropower generation is expected to remain elevated in the coming days as the monsoon crop season begins, although further rainfall could again lower the demand for irrigation water and affect output.