People’s lives are made a living misery by load-shedding.

Mercury levels have risen to unprecedented highs, causing up to 10-hour load-shedding in several locations around the nation.

Those sections of the nation where residents couldn’t afford to pay increased utility rates were without energy for extended periods of time, according to reports.

Even in the most affluent parts of Karachi, Sindh’s main city, where power disruptions are rare, there were three-hourly blackouts throughout the day. In some sections of town, power outages occur three times a day for two hours each.

There is a deficiency of 5,332MW in the country’s power producing capacity, according to the country’s Power Division on Tuesday.

Electricity production was broken down into four categories: hydropower, government thermal plants (totaling 1,062MW), private sector power plants (totaling 10,164 MW), renewable energy (totaling 1,521MW), photovoltaic (totaling 118MW), bagasse-based (totaling 142MW), and nuclear power (totaling 2,271MW).

While this was going on, the upper chamber of parliament raised the issue of prolonged power outages and requested an explanation from the state minister in charge of energy.

The administration, according to Muhammad Hashim Notezai, is working hard to decrease the country’s electrical load-shedding.

Asked about the nation’s energy shortages during Question Period, the state minister said the government was working to fix technical issues and ensure that power plants had enough fuel.

Public sector development money have not been granted to K-Electric (KE) in the previous five years for transmission lines from Karachi to Lasbela, he added.

He said that the 132kV transmission line from Hub Chowki to Vinder, and the 66kV transmission line from Vinder to Bela grid will be rehabilitated in stages by the Kenya Electricity Transmission (KET).

Phase-1 was anticipated to be finished by June 2022, with almost 97% of the project completed.

More than 92 percent of the project had been completed by the time it entered phase-II, and the project was anticipated to be finished in September 2022.

As part of the KE’s investment strategy, Notezai said that the KE planned to build new transmission lines and modernize grids in Vinder, Uthal, and Bela from 66 kV to 132 kV.

The Balochistan government was made aware of the project’s plans, according to the state minister. Although the project was delayed due to the Balochistan government and other authorities approving the rights of way, it was nonetheless completed on time.

He stated that the KE team was working hard to get the relevant permissions from the Balochistan administration.

According to Notezai, the above-mentioned project will greatly contribute to improving the region’s power supply dependability and meeting the region’s future load demand. According to him, despite all of these difficulties, the KE was ready and able to fulfil its proposal to improve power supply in the area and to seek cooperation from the provincial and federal governments on the topic.