May 11, 2007	Friday	Rabi-us-Sani 23, 1428

KARACHI, May 10: The power crisis in the city became more ominous on Thursday as angry victims of marathon load-shedding by the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC) torched one of the utility’s vehicles in downtown Saddar on Thursday, while people burnt tyres on Shahrah-i-Liaquat overnight, as the metropolis experienced about 10 hours of power outages.

The violent reaction of the KESC consumers was witnessed near Fareed Chambers when people became incensed due to the loss of power, owing to a fault in a transformer. When it could not be repaired in time, the KESC’s load-shedding cycle began and the whole area continued to experience the power outage in the scorching heat.

Angry protestors asked “Where are the so-called custodians of Karachi? Why are they not agitating and bringing out rallies against the power crisis? Is it not their issue?”

The situation in the city could further aggravate as different pressure groups were agitating against the government’s decision to forcibly close shops at 9pm. Pasban Karachi has called for a shutter down strike against continuing power outages.

The power breakdowns have seriously affected the water supply system, as pumping stations in many areas of the city could not operate due to lack of electricity.

A major reason for these frequent and prolonged power outages, according to insiders, was the KESC’s new privatized management’s decision to quietly bring down 11 kV systems to 10 kV.

Due to this low frequency, the KESC was actually supplying 160 to 180 volts instead of 220, causing serious overloading and hence the breakdown and damage to countless electrical appliances, besides mental and physical agony.

The KESC has been resorting to over 400 MW load-shedding since Wednesday, as demand for electricity touched the 2,354 MW mark.

According to sources, the KESC was generating about 800 MW. Unit 5 of the Bin Qasim Power Plant was operating much below capacity, while one unit of KTPS was out of action, as was the case with unit four of Bin Qasim, which was originally supposed to come online in April. Now this was not expected until the end of this month. Unit four, which was repaired by Siemens, was supposed to produce at least 200 MW, but was only generating 150 MW.

Sources in the KESC held Siemens responsible for the ongoing power crisis in the city. They pointed out that Mr Sohail Wajahat, who is heading the operations of the KESC on behalf of Siemens after privatization, had claimed that the KESC was generating 1,200 MW, whereas the actual generation was much less than 900 MW.

Residents of Blocks 2 and 3, Federal B. Area informed Dawn that power supply was suspended to the whole block five times since Wednesday-Thursday midnight, and each spell lasted for two to three hours until a stable supply was restored by Thursday evening. They said that because of intermittent disruptions, they could not pump water into the overhead tanks, causing immense problems to every household. While patients and the elderly suffered owing to the intense heat-wave and absence of electricity, students appearing in examinations failed to prepare themselves properly for their papers.

Residents of Block 20, F.B. Area also had similar complaints. They said that the power outage commenced at 3am and persisted for more than three hours. The same thing was repeated thrice during the day, and no one from the KESC responded to their frantic calls.

Reports from Blocks 7, 9, 14, 15 and 16 of F.B. Area said that intermittent power cuts of two to three hours continued for the fourth consecutive day on Thursday. Residents of these blocks said that load-shedding timings for their localities were absurd, as the power outage would wake up thousands of people from their sleep between midnight and dawn, and would not allow them to rest before leaving for work.

They said the KESC should, at least, ensure a few hours of sound sleep for citizens, enabling them to maintain their health and efficiency as the load-shedding was a matter of daily routine.

Residents of Gulshan Town Metroville III were without electricity since noon but no one came to their rescue.

Residents from different parts of Defence and Clifton also had similar complaints.