Pesco and Lesco announce planned outages across two provinces
Peshawar's utility will cut supply from 9am to 2:30pm on Tuesday, while Lahore's company has begun five-to-eight-hour daily shutdowns for winter upgrades.
The Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) will suspend electricity in parts of Peshawar and several surrounding districts on Tuesday, 27 October, from 9am to 2:30pm, while the Lahore Electric Supply Company (Lesco) has begun a separate round of daily shutdowns across Lahore and adjoining districts for maintenance and system upgrades ahead of winter.
Pesco's public relations department said in a notice that the shutdown was necessary to carry out maintenance and related work on the electricity network. According to ARY News, which reported the notice, the affected localities include parts of Peshawar, Pabbi, Kohat, Nowshera city, DI Khan, Swabi and adjoining areas served by the relevant grid stations and feeders. The utility did not say how many consumers would lose supply.
Lesco's programme, reported by ProPakistani, started on Monday, 26 October, and covers about 200 urban and rural subdivisions, with outages of five to seven hours a day and up to eight hours in some areas, mainly between 9am and 4pm. The work targets 132kV and 220kV grid stations and the 11kV feeders connected to them. Crews are to replace worn conductors and insulators, trim tree branches near high-voltage lines, overhaul grid stations and divide feeders to manage seasonal demand.
In Lahore, the schedule covers Allama Iqbal Town, Gulshan-e-Ravi, Shadman, Johar Town, Model Town, Defence, Cantt and Walton Road. Industrial and commercial areas around Raiwind, Manga Mandi, Sundar and Jubilee Town are also listed. Outside the city, the shutdowns reach parts of Sheikhupura, including Qila Sattar Shah and Atta Abad, as well as Kasur, Okara, Muridke, Farooqabad, Hujra Shah Muqeem and Phool Nagar.
ProPakistani reported that sources said some Lesco field offices had reported delays in receiving essential maintenance equipment and replacement parts, raising concern that restoration work could be held up. Lesco has not commented publicly on that account.
ProPakistani advised consumers in the affected areas to charge essential devices and make arrangements before the scheduled outages. Neither report gave an end date for the Lesco programme; the Pesco notice covers Tuesday only.
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