KARACHI: Disruption in power supply affects many areas
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, July 23: Citizens in many areas woke up earlier than their usual time on Sunday morning due to power failure that turned weather warmer by rendering fans and air-conditioners off. The breakdown was caused by suspension of electricity supply to eight grid stations from the Hubco-Baldia link.
The Karachi Electricity Supply Corporation has been receiving up to 700 megawatts from the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) – 400 megawatts through Hubco-Baldia link and 300 megawatts through Jamshoro-KDA link.
The Hubco-Baldia link suddenly broke down at around 6:30am, affecting power supply to the New Karachi, North Nazimabad, Valika, Nazimabad, Liaquatabad, Federal B Area, Civic Centre and Surjani grid stations, a spokesman for the KESC said.
The KESC, however, managed to connect the affected grids with alternative power supply source by 8am, he said, adding that in order to meet a shortfall of 200 megawatts, it had to resort to one-hour loadshedding twice on a rotation basis. The power consumption demand on Sunday, being holiday, did not exceed 2,000 megawatts and, as such, the KESC managed to overcome the power crisis, the spokesman maintained.
He said that Wapda had restored the second source, Jamshoro-KDA link, which had been closed for maintenance almost a month back. Since the Jamshoro-KDA link was switched on at around 4:15pm, the KESC started receiving up to 600 megawatts, the maximum output from both the links.
The Hubco-Baldia link is still lying off and no timeframe to re-energise it had been given to the KESC. He said that the Hubco-link must be restored as per the prime minister’s directives to ensure supply of 700 megawatts to the KESC power. If it was not restored, he argued, the two links of Jamshoro-KDA could not provide the required 700 megawatts to the KESC.
Although, the Jamshoro-KDA and Hubco-Baldia links would bring stability in the KESC transmission and distribution system once they were fully functional, they might not meet the consumer demand on a working day if it exceeded 2,100 megawatts and the KESC did not receive 700 megawatts from Wapda. In such a situation, the KESC would be have no option but to carry out one-hour loadshedding on a rotation basis across the city.
About rain-related complaints, the spokesman said that the system worked properly and there were no complaints of feeder tripping. However, he added, localised faults in some areas did occur and were rectified accordingly.
People from various areas complained about intermittent power failures in their localities. They said that power supply played hide-and-seek all the day and the KESC complaint centres did not satisfy customers about the problem.
An irate consumer from North Karachi sector 11-B said that power went off intermittently in his locality in the morning and evening. He said that he had tried several times to dial the number of centralised complaint centre but it remained busy.
A resident of the Rizwan Cooperative Housing Society, Scheme 33, said that power went off early in the morning for two hours and after being restored for 10 minutes, it went off for another two hours. He said power supply was again suspended at noon and restored at 1:45pm for 15 minutes only to be restored after yet another two hours.
An resident of a locality near Karsaz said that power went off in the morning for two hours.
Residents of Federal B Area’s Blocks 3, 15, 17 and 20 said that the power supply was suspended in the morning for more than two hours and there were intermittent breakdowns also in the afternoon and evening.
