KARACHI, Sept 13: Consumers of the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation complained that the power utility carried out unannounced load shedding on Monday. However, a spokesman for the KESC said that since there was no shortage of electricity, the power utility was not carrying out load shedding.

A resident of Defence, Phase VI, said that his complaint centre (5896006) told him that the KESC was carrying out load shedding. Another resident of the same locality said that his complaint centre confirmed that load shedding was on.

"Officials at the complaint centre said that because of some technical fault at the Bin Qasim power plant, there is a shortage of electricity, which is being overcome by carrying out load shedding on a rotation basis," he said.

A resident of Federal B Area, Block 18, said his complaint centre also told him that the KESC was carrying out load shedding to overcome a shortage of electricity. A resident of the same locality but Block 14 told Dawn at around 8pm that his area had experienced a power breakdown at 7.30pm.

"A high-ranking KESC official appeared on TV and offered apologies for a prolonged power breakdown which had occurred on Friday evening. He promised that the KESC would upgrade its transmission and distribution network in such a way that it would not collapse so easily. A little after his appearance on TV, our locality experienced a power breakdown," he said.

A resident of North Nazimabad, Block L, called Dawn at around 6pm to say that his locality had been without electricity since 4pm. "Apparently, our locality has been restructured into a couple of KESC zones.

This has been done without properly informing consumers, with the result that when we call one centre, we are told to call another one. And when, after a few attempts, we manage to get through to the centre concerned, we are informed that only the 'operations' department can register our complaint. A consumer makes all these calls only to find that the power breakdown is because of load shedding," he said.