Govt says apologises to nation for power loadshedding

ISLAMABAD: The federal government on Monday apologised for load shedding during night hours, attributing the situation to non-availability of contracted LNG from Qatar, which has rendered power plants with a combined capacity of around 5,000 MW unable to operate. In a joint video message, Federal Minister for Power Sardar Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari and Federal Minister for Petroleum Ali Pervaiz Malik explained the reasons behind the shortage of RLNG and the resultant load management across the country, including areas with high distribution losses. “There has been no shortage in supply during the day or night so far. However, due to increased demand during night hours, when the requirement cannot be met without RLNG-fired power plants, people are passing through a difficult time, for which I apologise,” Leghari said. READ MORE: Minister speaks of supply constraints: Load-shedding to stay till LNG flows resume The Power Minister said the government could purchase LNG from the spot market to operate the affected power plants, but the prevailing international prices were too high due to the Iran-US conflict and closure of the Strait of Hormuz. “We can buy LNG from the spot market to run