KARACHI, Aug 22: The widespread overnight downpour played havoc with the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation’s 11kV distribution system, aggravating the power supply situation in most parts of the city as the utility failed to rectify local faults with many more feeders tripping again on Wednesday morning.

The heavy rain knocked out power transformers of Baloch Colony, North Karachi, Surjani Town, Elander Road and Mauripur grids, leaving a vast area without electricity for several hours.

A KESC spokesman claimed that no load-shedding was being carried out and that out of the about 80 feeders that tripped on Tuesday night had been revived. But the telephone calls received at Dawn offices from many of the areas negated the claim.

Residents of many parts of North Nazimabad, Nazimabad, North and New Karachi, Surjani Town, Federal B Area, Buffer Zone and Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Gulistan-i-Jauhar, Malir, Shah Faisal, Korangi and Orangi, who had suffered prolonged power outages since the previous downpour, complained that the KESC had not yet rectified most of the faults.

The problem in the Defence Housing Authority and Clifton persisted as the utility could not fix the so-called eight-cable faults in the DHA’s Phase-VI, Khyaban-i-Bokhari, Rahat, Muhafiz and Seaview and the 26th street because the rainwater had again submerged the trenches in which the cables had been damaged.

Frantic telephone calls from across the city had some common complaints such as ‘We do not have electricity for several hours’, ‘Why the KESC be paid the bills while we have to suffer so much’, ‘There is no response from the complaint centres’, ‘The KESC has thrown us back into the dark ages’, etc.

The lingering problem of power outages has also badly affected the business and industry. Business leaders accuse the utility of ruining the industrial and business activity in the city and cite the KESC chief’s warning with horror that the metropolis might suffer load-shedding for at least half a decade more.

Insiders blame the “war of vested interests” between the privatised Siemens-led management and the “old guards” of the KESC on the one hand, and between the politically-backed different groups within the organisation, on the other.

The power crisis has also worsened because the KESC’s new management has failed in enhancing the utility’s generation capacity and has quietly lowered the 11 kV systems to 10kV, thus providing about 170 volts instead of 220 to the domestic consumers. It has thus strained the overloaded distribution system, which trips every now and then, damaging household electrical appliances.

But the biggest problem with the KESC is its misleading demand and load calculations. According to the KESC, the utility’s own available new combined cycle (gross) generation capacity for May was estimated at 1,534MW. After deducting 200MW for maintenance and spinning reserve, the net KESC capacity was estimated at 1,334MW. But actually this was not more than 900MW due to the failure of the KESC to repair and reactivate its dwindling power generation units of Bin Qasim and other plants. The projections for June and July were 1,584MW and 1,684MW, respectively.

The import from Wapda, Kanupp, Gul Ahmad and Tapal plants was estimated at 2,339MW in May, 2,389MW in June and 2,504MW in July this year. But these presumptive estimations have been proved wrong by the increasing power outages and dwindling generation capacity.