Power production drops by 14%

Power production, in April, witnessed a staggering 14% decline, plummeting to 8,640 gigawatt-hours (GWh), attributed to a significant surge in electricity prices, a slowdown in industrial activities, and a notable migration of businesses and households towards solar power from the national grid, thus exacerbating the burden of capacity payment and circular debt on the nation. Despite a rise in temperature during the month, energy production experienced a dip, indicating that the government and distribution companies resorted to higher load-shedding measures to avoid selling expensive power to end-consumers, who were grappling with a reduction in their purchasing power. Comparatively, electricity generation had stood at 10,010 GWh in the same month of April of the previous year, as reported by local research houses citing NEPRA’s (National Electric Power Regulatory Authority) data on Tuesday.