KARACHI, Dec 4: The torrential rains that started on Sunday and continued into Monday evening with brief intervals exposed the tall claims of the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation as more than half of the city was again without electricity supply for serious faults in the KESC’s generation and distribution systems.
Monday’s breakdowns was larger in effect as no area was immune from power breakdowns. Some senior officials claimed that the situation was ‘under control’ but the feedback from the power utility’s subscribers to newspaper offices was huge, most of them complaining of prolonged power failures.A senior KESC official, Adnan Bashir Khan, said not more than 50 feeders had tripped during the rain and he had received merely a couple of complaints from Federal B Area of snapped wires.“The situation is under control,” he said, adding: “There is no shortage of generation but our distribution network is worn-out due to which tripping in cables is creating problems and breakdowns.”
According to him, not more than 15 per cent of the city was affected. But insiders in the KESC told Dawn that the problem was too gruesome than what was being officially depicted by the KESC authorities.
More than half of the city was reportedly without power since 2pm on Sunday and the areas where the power was restored faced another power breakdown since late Sunday night to Monday night.
Well-placed sources in the KESC told Dawn that two of the six units of the Bin Qasim Power Station were still shut due to tripping etc. Unit No 5 generating 210mw that had stopped working on Sunday was restored on Monday. Unit No 6 is the new unit and was being operated to its maximum capacity before it stopped generating power on Saturday; while unit No 3 was generating about 150mw and was shut on Sunday, the sources said.
Besides, the sources said, two out of the three units of the Korangi Thermal Power Station -– each generating around 40mw – are shut for more than a week.The insiders disagreed with the claim by the top KESC officials in which they said the generation was not a problem.
“When half of the city is not being supplied with power, how can one claim the generation is at par with the demand,” said a source.
Monday’s rain brought the mercury down yet the city’s power demand was around 1,500mw, but the KESC’s system was only able to serve a little over 1,000mw.
Reports gathering from different parts of the city showed that a large number of snapped wires dangling from the poles to the stagnant rainwater were posing serious dangers to the lives.
In various localities of Federal B Area, Old Town and Saddar, residents complained that suspected live wires were dangling in the rainwater and there were no KESC staff available to get them removed. Sources said the rain on Sunday and Monday had only added to the situation, which was already worsening with depleted efficiency on the part of the hierarchy of the power utility.
They said the rain had tripped some 200 out of the 850 feeders of the city while the corporation’s response to normalise the situation was too slow.
Reports suggested that the upscale DHA and Clifton areas were the worst sufferers of the situation, which was evident from frantic calls from its residents complaining that they had no power supply for the previous 24 hours or so.
KESC’s director operations Adnan Bashir Khan said the problem in the up-market areas was also caused by the substations located in the basements of the buildings.
“From Teen Talwar to the KPT Underpass all substations are in the basements of the buildings, which had become first casualty when it rains,” he said.
He said similar was the situation in the DHA where the number of substations was too meager because the spaces for such essential infrastructure was not provided in the posh area. Besides, residents of most parts of Federal B Area, North Nazimabad, Liaquatabad, Gulberg, Baldia, Orangi, Korangi, Landhi, Saddar, Lyari, Keamari, Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Gulistan-i-Jauhar etc. complained of power failures.
“Power in our locality has been off since 1am Sunday night and has not been restored till yet,” Dr Sadaf Shahid, a resident of ‘L’ Block of North Nazimabad, said.
She said the residents were trying to contact to the hotline 118, but it was not responding.
Mohammad Sohail, a resident of North Nazimabad’s ‘A’ Block, said they lost two of the three phases on Sunday while the other phase went off on Monday. He criticized the KESC officials for their failure in supplying proper electricity at a time when the weather was too generous and the demand was far less than what was required in summer.
The KESC has, however, publicized the mobile numbers of some of their senior officials and emergency centres and asked subscribers to contact them in any emergency.
They are: Syed Sabahat Ali, director network (0333-3710177), Adnan Bashir Khan, director operations (0300-9252222), emergency centre-1 (0300-2448546), emergency centre-2 (0300-2448547), emergency centre-3 (0300-2448548), emergency centre-4 (0300-2448549), emergency centre-5 (0300-2448550), emergency centre-6 (0300-2448551).
