Pakistan Races to Fix Power Network Before Elections
- Punjab Chief Minister Sharif says powercuts to end March 2018
- Concerns rising whether national grid can handle extra load
Coal power plant
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Pakistan is racing to bridge its power supply gap before national elections next year after a series of widespread blackouts highlighted the fragility of the network and its negative pull on South Asia’s second largest economy.
The country faces a peak supply gap of 8,000 megawatts during the “scorching” summer, above the average 5,000 to 6,000 megawatt shortfall, said Shehbaz Sharif, the chief minister of Pakistan’s most populous province of Punjab and younger brother of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. About 7,000 to 9,000 megawatts will be added to the national grid by March 2018, he said.