KARACHI, July 2: Power failures continued to occur in many localities in the city on Friday, as some complaint centres of the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation admitted to consumers that they were carrying out unannounced loadshedding.

Sources in the KESC's centralized complaint centre said that on Friday Gulistan-i-Jauhar, Garden East and West, Defence, phases IV and V, North Nazimabad, Federal B Area, Paposh Nagar, Golimar, Rizvia Society and PECHS (near Chanesar Halt) had experienced power breakdowns.

They said on any given day, a large number of power breakdowns occurred when the transmission and distribution network of the power utility broke down because of lack of maintenance.

Calling from Buffer Zone, Block 15-B Ghalib Alam said there were at least three pole-mounted transformers in his locality. "But the pole-mounted transformer which supplies electricity to over 150 houses, including my house, breaks down every now and then.

Today a power breakdown occurred at 6pm and it has yet not been restored despite it being 9pm," he said, adding while phones at his regional complaint centre remained unattended.

A resident of Federal B Area, Block 2, said that quite often voltage supply to his locality dropped to 170 volts. "When we call our regional complaint centre, we are told that voltage is dropped to make people switch off their appliances.

KESC staff should realize that fluctuation of voltage is very bad for electronic devices which cannot withstand such swings," he said. A resident of North Nazimabad, Block L, said that the KESC was carrying out loadshedding at night, and wondered as to why loadshedding schedulehad not been announced in advance.