KESC performance comes under fire: Panel discussion
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, June 26: Participants of a panel discussion criticized the performance of the KESC and demanded that a professional administration be brought in the power utility to make it an efficient organization.
They also criticized the induction of army into the KESC and said its performance had deteriorated over the years.
The panelists who took part in the discussion included Zubair Motiwala, former president of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry; Wali Jan, principal engineer of W.J. Associate; Riazul Hasan, editor of Engineering Review; and Ronald deSouza, chairman of Shehri. The audience also participated in the discussion which was organized by The Helpline Trust.
Mr deSouza said all over the world electricity was a profitable business.
“Browsing through the Internet one finds that in London there are 15 power companies vying with one another to sell electricity to consumers. They all operate at a profit. The KESC, on the other hand, has been running at a loss. Twenty-five per cent of electricity generated by the KESC is pilfered. Those who pilfer electricity consume more of it because they do not have to pay for it. This, in turn, burdens the KESC infrastructure.”
Mr Motiwala said that the KESC was a mismanaged organization. “Every day newspapers carry reports of power breakdowns occurring all over the city. It is quite evident that the KESC administration has no control over the situation,” he said.
Responding to this, a KESC representative said the power utility had 1.7 million consumers and the power breakdowns reported by newspapers were individual complaints.
Mr Hasan said the KESC was being run by people who were not fit for the job.
“By the time an inexpert army man running the KESC learns about the technicalities involved, he is transferred, only to be replaced by another inexperienced serviceman who takes the same amount of time learning to differentiate between electrical power and electrical voltage,” he quipped.
Arif Balwani, a stakeholder, said it was a pity that the consumers of the power utility could no longer testify to the veracity of KESC audit reports because the chairman of the KESC, Rao Zulfiqar Ali Khan, a retired lieutenant-general, had stated in a report that all past audit reports were incorrect.
“In an interview on April 30, Mr Khan had debunked all official and unofficial reports and audit reports which showed the line losses in Karachi at 38 per cent. The KESC chief insisted that the line losses in Karachi had been under-reported and they had actually been 60 per cent before the induction of the army into the power utility,” he said.
KESC representatives said that the demand for electricity in the city was 1,900 megawatts while the KESC could only generate 1,400 megawatts.
“The gap between demand and supply is met by electricity from independent power producers, Karachi Nuclear Power Plant, Steel Mills and Water and Power Development Authority.”
They added that there had not been enough investment in the KESC infrastructure. “Out of the 102 transformers in the city, at least 80 per cent are 70 per cent overloaded. Out of the 800 feeders of the KESC, 13 per cent are overloaded.
According to a government plan, Rs13.3 billion will be given by the government to be spent on the KESC over the next three years,” they said.
Responding to allegations about the KESC’s inability to disconnect the connections of defaulters, the KESC representatives said every month 400,000 to 500,000 consumers became defaulters.
No utility could have such a large working force to disconnect so many connections every month, they added.
The panel discussion was conducted by the chairman of The Helpline Trust, Hamid Maker.
