October 21 2008

Bangladesh: Power output falls due to gas shortages

Gas supply shortages have put brakes on power production, making load management all the more difficult throughout the country.

According to the power division, plants in Chittagong region alone have lost more than 400 megawatts in generation capacity, thanks to poor gas supply and fall in water level.

Canada (Alberta): Diesel thefts on the rise in GP as shortage puts the brakes on trucking industry

As a diesel fuel shortage continues to sweep across Western Canada, Grande Prairie businesses are dealing with a spike in diesel thefts.

Companies are taking extra precautions against illegal siphoning, fuelling equipment immediately prior to usage rather than the usual evening fill-up.

“They suck diesel out of the truckers if they can, and the loaders sitting in the bush, any equipment sitting in the bush. It happened three times,” said Mohinder Singh, president of Nose Mountain Trucking.

Canada: CTA questions Canadian fuel supply -- again

The shortage of diesel fuel in western Canada has the Canadian Trucking Alliance questioning the nation’s refining capacity, and not for the first time.

In February 2007, the Ontario trucking industry suffered a shortage of diesel fuel following a fire at a refinery in Nanticoke, Ont. Western Canada even had a shortage earlier this year in March.

India: New steps to tackle power shortage

The State government on Monday came out with a combination of measures in an attempt to reduce energy consumption by 20 per cent for domestic consumers and 40 per cent for high tension (HT) industrial units and commercial establishments.

Pakistan: Demo against load-shedding

Karachi Chapter, organised a protest demonstration on Monday outside the Karachi Press Club (KPC) to protest against the rise in power tariff and unannounced load-shedding.

President HRN, Intikhab Alam Soori, said that it was a disgrace of the peoples’ mandate that the government had increased the power tariff instead of curbing unannounced load-shedding in the country’s biggest industrial city Karachi. He said that load-shedding was the result of continuation of Musharraf’s policies.

Pakistan: Mob vents frustration over power outages

Around 100 protesters attacked the Madina Colony Electric Supply Company (LESCO) Sub-Division Office (SDO) on Monday, setting the office record, furniture and computers on fire.

Rescue 1122 officials said that between 100 and 150 people, several armed with clubs, marched towards the LESCO office situated near China Scheme in Gujjarpura, while chanting slogans against LESCO for overcharging and massive load shedding. The enraged people beat up LESCO officials and also damaged Sub-Divisional Officer Malik Faizan’s vehicle.

Pakistan: Loadshedding to make more people jobless

President Quaid-e-Azam Industrial Estate Mian Nauman Kabir has feared that acute shortage of electricity and gas could take the graph of unemployment to new heights besides pushing the whole industrial sector to the wall.

Pakistan: Load shedding threatens steel furnaces’ business

The business community on Monday warned that the various Steel Furnaces units would shut down their operations because the 12-hour load shedding has endangered their survival by enhancing their cost of production.

The present power crisis is crippling the productivity of business and industry as well as proving a discouraging factor for the prospective investors, said Mohammad Ijaz Abassi in a meeting with a delegation of various steel furnaces of Islamabad.