KARACHI: Power supply system fails as mercury shoots up
By Bahzad Alam Khan
KARACHI, April 7: As the city experienced the second hottest day of the month on Monday, with mercury again rising to 40.5 degrees centigrade, the transmission and distribution system of the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation broke down at several localities resulting in prolonged power breakdowns.
Calling from Federal B Area, Block 17, a KESC consumer told Dawn that his locality had been without electricity for the whole night.
“The power breakdown last night was obviously a technical fault. I have read in papers that the managing director of the KESC claims quite often that the power utility can rectify faults within two hours. He should take notice of our complaint in which the KESC technical teams either did not bother to rectify the fault all night or remained unable to rectify it.”
The consumer added that power supply to his area had been restored in the morning only to leave them again.
Meanwhile, the Met Office told Dawn that on Monday the maximum temperature had been 40.5 degrees centigrade while the minimum temperature had been 23.5 degrees centigrade. They added that humidity had been as low as five per cent. They pointed out that Monday was the second hottest day of the month. The first hottest day of the season had been April 3 when mercury had also risen to 40.5 degrees centigrade.
Calling from Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Block 14, a consumer told Dawn that his apartment had been without electricity for two hours in the morning.
“There are many illegal connections in my apartments used by many people. I have often told my complaint centre about such instances of power pilferage but the KESC has taken no action. With such lackadaisical approach on the part of the KESC, it is no surprise that the transmission and distribution losses of the power utility have risen to about 40 per cent.”
A consumer called from North Nazimabad, Block I, and said that he had a prolonged power breakdown earlier in the day.
“What I fail to understand is that why the KESC did nothing to keep its transmission and distribution system geared for the onslaught of summer while it had a lot of time to do so in winter. It is said that a stitch in time saves nine. If the power utility had well maintained its transmission and distribution network, we would not have had to face power breakdowns at the very outset of what appears to be a very nasty summer.”
Calling from the same area, a resident said that when the power breakdown had become very prolonged, he had driven to his regional complaint centre to find out what had exactly happened. “I was surprised to learn that nobody had exact knowledge about the nature of the power breakdown. Some officials even tried to argue with me that there was no power breakdown. This shows that there is a great lack of coordination between the various departments of the KESC.”
Residents of Malir complained that power breakdowns have become a routine in Malir, Saudabad, Kausar Town, Pak Kausar Town and Saudia Colony Khokhrapar and the KESC should do something to strengthen the power supply position in this hot weather.
Calling from North Nazimabad, Block A, a resident, Sohail, said that for the past one week the KESC had been carrying out unannounced loadshedding in his locality. “We have a couple of spells of power breakdowns every day. When we contact our regional complaint centre we are told that because of overloading, the power utility was forced to carry out loadshedding. These power breakdowns do not occur at fixed hours,” he said.
