It looks like there is a severe shortage of power across the country. Even the best areas of the Capital, those that were hardly touched by the electricity and power issues of the 80s and 90s, aren’t spared and are suffering the same scheduled and unscheduled power outages as the rest of the country.
The worst part is that it isn’t just the total outages at specific times that are the problem. The power itself is very unstable. Ever since we returned from the holidays, the work PCs randomly power down and then start back up again. A sort of delayed reboot. At first, I had a couple of the systems replaced, but then realized that it had something to do with the power. No solution to the problem so far.
The demand has definitely gone up quite a lot recently while I doubt there has been any project of note to increase the supply. The dry spell of the last few months probably didn’t help the hydro-power plants either and the silting of the aging dams has actually decreased their power generation capacity over the last few years.
I remember reading this article a couple of years ago about Pakistan being one of the countries where some of the world’s newest reactors (either pressurized water reactors or hopefully, the pebble bed type) were to be erected. I wonder how far along those projects are or have they also fallen victim to the uncertainty surrounding this nation?
More on the load shedding here on Islamabad Metblogs.