Lahore Power Cuts After Tarbela Units Go Offline
Lahore power cuts lasting up to four hours are hitting the city every evening after technical faults knocked two generating units at Tarbela Dam offline.
The faults, in the Tarbela and Mangla hydropower systems, have cut electricity supply and widened the shortfall in Lahore, other parts of Punjab and several regions across the country, ProPakistani reported.
The shortfall in the Lahore Electric Supply Company (LESCO) network has reached 800 megawatts, and that gap is behind the evening cuts of up to four hours in the city. Power generation at Tarbela Dam has fallen to 656MW with the two units out of operation.
The Tarbela 5th Extension is designed to add 1,530MW of hydropower capacity to the national grid. Tarbela is Pakistan’s largest electricity generation facility, with an installed capacity of 4,888MW, about half of Wapda’s total hydropower capacity. The fifth extension will add three units of 510MW each, taking the total to 6,418MW. The drop to 656MW leaves most of that capacity idle, which is why a fault at one station can cut power across Punjab. For households and businesses in Lahore, the cuts are unannounced, so there is no way to plan around them until the distribution companies publish timings.
What happened at Tarbela
Reports have linked the disruption to an incident at the construction site of the Tarbela 5th Extension Hydropower Project (T-5) on Monday. A weak section of rock fell during excavation, and water entered a tunnel and the powerhouse. Wapda confirmed that all workers were safely evacuated.
A viral video that claimed to show a man damaging the dam was found to be false. The footage was filmed in Kohistan in August and has nothing to do with Tarbela.
Work on the 1,530MW extension was suspended after the Nov 9 incident, when a bund breach flooded construction works. Wapda later said the dam itself was safe after the rock collapse at the site.
The T-5 project has faced setbacks before. Its cost jumped 285 per cent after a cofferdam collapse. The country’s two highest project sanctioning bodies have ordered a review of Wapda’s lapses on the Rs316 billion project, but five months after the first order, no review committee has been formed. The Planning Commission wrote to the Water Resources Ministry in June to set up the committee, and an official confirmed it still does not exist.
No schedule yet for the Lahore power cuts
The Ministry of Energy (Power Division) has directed all power distribution companies to announce their load-shedding schedules at once, so consumers know when to expect outages. LESCO and other companies had not issued a formal schedule at the time of reporting.
No timeline has been announced for bringing the affected Tarbela units back online.
The fresh outages come weeks after Pakistan’s nationwide power shortfall crossed 4,000MW. Power distribution is under strain on several fronts. The Public Accounts Committee has found Rs624 billion in distribution company assets untagged ahead of privatisation, and the prime minister has asked a task force to finalise cheaper industrial power rates for telecom firms.
Frequently asked questions
How long are the power cuts in Lahore?
Up to four hours every evening. The cuts are unannounced, and no formal schedule has been issued yet.
Why is Lahore facing load-shedding?
Technical faults knocked two generating units at Tarbela Dam offline. The shortfall in the LESCO network has reached 800MW, and generation at Tarbela has fallen to 656MW.
What caused the fault at Tarbela?
An incident at the Tarbela 5th Extension construction site on Monday, when a weak section of rock fell during excavation and water entered a tunnel and the powerhouse.
Is there a load-shedding schedule?
Not yet. The Power Division has directed all distribution companies to announce their schedules immediately, but LESCO and others had not issued one at the time of reporting.
When will the Tarbela units be back online?
No timeline has been announced.
