May 17, 2008	Saturday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 11, 1429

KARACHI, May 16: As the mercury rose to 33.2 degrees Celsius with 69 per cent humidity on Friday, the Karachi Electric Supply Company resorted to several rounds of prolonged outages to deal with the crisis due to 332 megawatts deficit as two units of the Bin Qasim Power Plant ceased operation.

Meanwhile in the Korangi area, people came out on the roads late in the evening and staged a demonstration on the main Korangi Road to protest electricity failures and water supply shortage.

Students appearing in different examinations were the hardest hit amid hollow claims of tiding over the load-shedding problem within 90 days.

Sources in the KESC said two generating units of the Bin Qasim Thermal Power Station ceased generation of electricity. During the past few days, the gap between power supply and demand has been ranging between 100 to 150 MW.

Unit no 1 of the Bin Qasim plant tripped around 9.30am on Friday while unit No 6 was shut down for maintenance: it will remain out of operation for at least three more days.

Owing to an increasing gap in supply and demand KESC consumers – including businessmen, traders and shopkeepers of various commercial and residential localities – were subjected to load-shedding of at least two-and-half-hours duration, besides domestic consumers. By the evening, each locality experienced at least two spells of load-shedding.

The power crisis has already had a telling effect on the government’s daylight savings plan to tide over the power shortage at least for the next 90 days.

Meanwhile, various areas of the city, especially densely populated ones, came under prolonged spells of power failures in addition to the load-shedding owing to faults in the electricity transmission and distribution network.

The installations and mechanisms of electricity transmission and distribution systems often get overloaded due to a phenomenal rise in power consumption with the start of the summer season, causing faults and tripping of the system.

On Thursday there was a fire at the Korangi grid station that affected four of the power transformers installed at the grid station, causing a prolonged power breakdown in the area till late Thursday evening.

Informed sources believe that KESC management wilfully exercises the option of shutting down the power generation units, especially at its Bin Qasim facility, on the pretext of maintenance and overhauling, just to conserve expenses on fuel and running the generation plants.

It is worth mentioning that the KESC has already been facing a serious financial crisis causing it to default on its payment to Wapda and its subsidiary organisations. Every other day various TV channels carry news of phenomenal increase in tariffs for electricity consumption for power consumers in the city in order to increase the KESC’s earnings.

The KESC officials concerned, however, strictly deny the issuance of any official notification for an increase in the electricity consumption tariff.

Owing to prolonged spells of electricity breakdowns, affecting the installations of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board, several sprawling residential areas in the city have been running dry for the last few days.