Pakistan continued to face an electricity shortfall during peak hours on April 23 despite an increase in hydropower generation, according to the Power Division.

Officials said electricity demand rose across the country, while hydropower output increased to 5,800 megawatts during peak hours due to higher water releases from Tarbela Dam.

Even with the improvement, generation remained well below the country’s total installed hydropower capacity of 11,500 megawatts.

The increase in hydropower output also helped stabilize the national grid, allowing an additional 500 megawatts of electricity to be transmitted from the southern region to the central system. That was around 100 megawatts higher than the previous night.

Despite the higher supply, power distribution companies carried out load management of up to two hours during peak nighttime demand, officials said.

The Power Division said economic load management on high-loss feeders was continuing under policy and was separate from peak-hour load management.

Officials added that around 5,500 megawatts of generation capacity remained idle because of the unavailability of liquefied natural gas amid global supply constraints.

The division said better LNG availability and further increases in water releases could help eliminate the nighttime shortfall in the coming days.