KARACHI: Many areas without power amid rain: People suffer hours-long breakdowns
By Hasan Mansoor
KARACHI, Dec 3: Serious faults in the KESC’s generation and distribution system coupled with Sunday’s rain badly disrupted life as almost half of Karachi experienced total breakdown for most of the day with no immediate assistance from the power utility.
Almost half of the city had been reportedly without power since 2pm on Sunday and most of those areas remained affected till late in the night.
Well-placed sources in the KESC told Dawn that three of the six units of the Bin Qasim Power Station had been shut due to tripping.
These units included unit No 5, generating 210mw, which had recently been repaired by KESC engineers by keeping this unit out of bar for some 74 days (from September to November).
The other units which had been shut are unit Nos 3 and 6. The latter is a new unit and was being operated to its maximum capacity before it stopped generating power on Saturday. Unit No 3 was generating about 150mw and was shut on Sunday, the sources said.
Besides, two of the three units of the Korangi Thermal Power Station (KTPS) – each generating around 40mw – have been shut for more than a week.
Insiders in the KESC said the power utility opted for rotational load-shedding for one-and-a-half hours on Saturday to meet the power shortage of around 150mw.Sunday’s rain brought the mercury down and the city’s power demand was around 1,800mw, but the KESC’s system was only able to serve a little over 900mw, just half of the total demand.
The sources said Sunday’s rain had only added to the situation, which was already worsening with depleted efficiency on the part of the hierarchy of the power utility.
Insiders said the power supply to Uthal, Bela and Vinder from the KESC had been shut for the last three days due to four damaged transmission towers.
The sources said the rain had tripped some 400 out of the 850 feeders of the city while the corporation’s efforts to normalise the situation were too slow.
Reports suggested that many localities of the upscale DHA and Clifton were without electricity besides most parts of Federal B Area, North Nazimabad, Liaquatabad, Gulberg, Baldia, Orangi, Korangi, Landhi, Saddar, Lyari, Keamari etc.
Residents from various parts of the city complained of prolonged power failures and blamed the KESC for doing little to ensure some sort of comfort to their subscribers.
“Power supply in our locality has been off since 2:30 pm and not been restored yet, late night,” a resident of Block 5, Federal B Area, said.
He said the residents were trying to contact to the hotline 118, which was not responding.
Another resident of Defence Phase-II criticised KESC officials for their failure to supply proper electricity at a time when the weather was too generous and the demand was far less than what is required in summer.
“The private contractor of the KESC is responsible for distribution, customer services, transmission and generation and the power utility completed a full one year under the private management but what its subscribers have so far been offered is not different than what they had suffered before its privatisation,” said an irate consumer.
This reporter tried to get the version of the KESC’s official spokesman but he was not available on his mobile and residential phone numbers.
KARACHI, Dec 3: Serious faults in the KESC’s generation and distribution system coupled with Sunday’s rain badly disrupted life as almost half of Karachi experienced total breakdown for most of the day with no immediate assistance from the power utility.
