LAHORE, April 4: The Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) has suspended gas supply to five power plants in Punjab, says a press release.

The power plants are Orient, Saphire, Fauji Kabirwala, Rousch and Saif Power.

Consequently, the Pakistan Electric Power Company (Pepco) has to face electricity shortfall of another 1,000MW in its system, with no option left but to increase loadshedding (one hour in urban areas and two hours in rural areas) in its jurisdiction.

A Pepco spokesman has assured power consumers that loadshedding duration will be cut as soon as gas supply to these power houses is restored. 68MW electricity: With the availability of water, both main units of the Khan Khwar Hydropower Station have started generating 68MW electricity as per their cumulative installed capacity, delivering over 1.1 million units of electricity to the national grid daily, which is equivalent to over Rs10 million revenue.

The third auxiliary unit of 4MW will also go into operation soon.

The Khan Khwar Hydropower Station started its commercial operation in December 2010.

The 72MW Khan Khwar Hydropower Station, one of the three high-head hydropower projects, has been constructed on Khan Khwar (river), a tributary of the River Indus near Besham in Shangla district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Rest of the two projects namely 121MW Allai Khwar and 130MW Duber Khwar are also at the advance stage of their completion. — Staff Reporter