KARACHI: Power cuts continue as KESC gets ADB loan
Dawn Report
KARACHI/ISLAMABAD, June 4: Grappling with prolonged and intermittent power breakdowns, the citizens of the city failed to understand why the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation has not shown any improvement following its privatisation, the cash-starved power utility received the good news from the Asian Development Bank which granted it a huge loan on Monday to improve its power generation and transmission system.
KESC officials said prolonged load-shedding was prompted by the sudden closure of the Unit-5 of the Bin Qasim power station early on Monday which increased the gap between supply and demand from 250MW to 400MW. Ultimately, the KESC resorted to effecting more than six hours of load-shedding in at least three equal spells on a rotation basis.
However, consumers from different areas spoke of more than four hours of load-shedding at a stretch. Many said they experienced a three- to four-hour-long power cut after every 15 minutes.
According to sources, the Unit-5 of the Bin Qasim thermal power station developed a fault when a tube of its boiler started leaking. The closure of the unit led to a 150 megawatt shortfall in power generation. The KESC was already running short of around 250 megawatts to meet the city’s current electricity demand, estimated at 2,200 to 2,300 megawatts.
Perturbed by the frequent and prolonged power cuts amid hot and humid weather as mercury shot up to 38 degree Centigrade, people kept on making calls to newspaper offices to find out about the problem that had resulted in such a crisis-like situation.
The KESC spokesman, Syed Sultan Hassan, responding to the Dawn’s query from Islamabad, said that work to revive the closed Bin Qasim unit was under way and as soon as the work was completed, the power supply situation in the city would normalise. He confirmed that the problem at the Bin Qasim unit had caused additional two-hour load-shedding in all areas of the city on a rotation basis.
Meanwhile, a report from Islamabad said that the Asian Development Bank was extending a loan of $150 million to the KESC to improve its power generation and capacity and transmission network.
The ADB loan will go towards the corporation’s $809 million (Rs52 billion) capital investment programme. The balance of funding will come from shareholders, the International Finance Corporation and the local commercial banks.
The move comes less than two years after the power utility was privatised.
Expectedly, the investment will increase KESC’s power generation capacity to above 785MW from the existing 1,500MW, besides improving its transmission and distribution network, commercial system and consumer responsiveness. The agreement for the loan was signed on Monday in Islamabad where Director General of the ADB’s Private Sector Operations Department Robert Bestani and Chief Executive Officer of the KESC Syed Mohammad Amjad exchanged the relevant documents.
“This capital injection is essential and will greatly improve the utility’s ability to provide quality service to Karachi,” said Mr Bestani.
Syed Muhammad Amjad appreciated the ADB’s support for the KESC’s urgent turnaround and for its role in bringing together a much larger package.
The $150 million loan is being provided from the ADB’s ordinary capital resources without a government guarantee. The loan will have a maturity of 10 years and a grace period of up to three years on repayment.
