12 June 2004	Saturday	23 Rabi-us-Saani 1425

KARACHI, June 11: The number of power breakdowns increased as the city experienced the hottest day of the month on Friday, with the electricity demand rising to over 2,020 megawatts.

A spokesman for the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation said that whenever the electricity demand rose beyond 2,000 megawatts, the power utility had to carry out load shedding.

He added that a power house of the Water and Power Development Authority at the Tarbela Dam had broken down on Friday, resulting in what are technically called 'under-frequency operations,' causing a couple of the KESC feeders to trip. He said that the tripping of feeders had caused power breakdowns in the area, which received electricity from the KESC.

A resident of Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Block 13-D-2, called in the evening to say that his locality had been without electricity for a couple of hours. He said that of late his locality experienced power breakdowns almost on a daily basis.

"We inform our complaint centre about the breakdowns but they do very little to solve our problems. Quite often they give us the telephone numbers of the operations department to find out what had happened to the power supply to our locality," he said.

Calling from Saddar, a trader said that the commercial area of the city also experienced multiple power breakdowns on Friday morning. "We sell electronic home appliances. People come to our shops and want us to switch on these devices so that they can examine their performance.

A large number of traders in Saddar have purchased power supply systems. I am also considering investing in one, because the KESC is not likely to improve its performance," he observed. A resident of Federal B Area, Block 18, called to say that his locality experienced power breakdowns many times on Thursday night and Friday morning.

Sources at the centralized complaint centre of the KESC told Dawn that the areas from which complaints about power breakdowns had been received included Shah Faisal Colony, North Nazimabad, Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Kharadar, New Karachi/ North Karachi, Garden East, Malir, Dhoraji Colony, Bahadurabad and Gulistan-i-Jauhar.