Increased power utilization in the midst of coronavirus lockdown and temperature rise has caused power demand to peak at 3,200MW, K-Electric said Wednesday.

According to K-Electric, the power utility is facing severe furnace oil shortage, which is compromising the generation capacity at its 1,250MW Bin Qasim Station fired by furnace-oil.

“K-Electric’s daily furnace oil requirement is close to 4,500 tonnes per day, while at present we are receiving only around 1,500 tonnes daily. Currently, there are pending orders of close to 13,500-tonne furnace oil which have not yet been supplied; this is creating difficulties in meeting power demand which may necessitate load-management even in exempted areas to meet the shortfall between supply and demand,” it said.