Pakistani power cuts cripple textile sector

Pakistan faces a power deficit of up to 3,000 MW but the shortage peaked at more than 4,500 MW last week when outflows from reservoirs were reduced for annual irrigation canal cleaning and short oil and gas supplies reduced output from thermal power plants. As a result, the government resorted to unannounced power cuts for hours every day.

The cuts are an inconvenience for all, but a potential disaster for the textile sector, Pakistan's biggest source of exports and its main manufacturing employer.

The situation has improved since last week after more water was released from reservoirs and better oil supplies to thermal units brought down the deficit to between 2,500 and 3,000 MW. But many parts of the country still face intermittent power cuts of eight hours a day.

“The textile industry runs 24 hours a day and if eight hours are gone that means one-third of output has gone,” said Tariq Mehmood, chairman of the All Pakistan Textiles Mills Association.

His association ran a newspaper advertisement on Monday saying production was coming to a grinding halt and the industry faced total collapse. “This sector contributes 60 percent to the country's exports and provides direct employment to 2.8 million people,” he said.

Pakistan's installed capacity is about 19,845 MW, of which about a third is produced by hydro-electric power. Much of the rest is generated by thermal plants, fuelled primarily by gas and oil. Several thousand angry people, most of them textile workers, torched offices of the state-owned power utility and several vehicles in the industrial city of Faisalabad on Saturday to protest against the cuts.

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