July 18, 2008	Friday	Rajab 14, 1429

KARACHI, July 17: A large number of Karachi Electric Supply Corporation consumers on Thursday called newspaper offices to complain about prolonged spells of scheduled as well as unscheduled loadshedding.

Responding to Dawn’s queries, a spokesperson for the Karachi Electricity Supply Corporation conceded that the city was facing a shortage of between 300 megawatts and 350 megawatts as a result of which three spells of power outages of two hours duration each was being carried out.

A caller from Fida Hussain Sheikha Road in Lyari said that the power went off and on.

He added that the power came for two hours and then it would remain disrupted for two hours and again the same cycle would begin.

Another caller from Korangi Crossing said that besides the three spells, power supply remained disrupted for two to three hours more, adding that whenever a fault developed in the lanes of Sectors C, E, F, the KESC staff sometimes took three to four days to repair the fault to restore power supply.

A caller from Malir said that power in his area went off four to five times and the KESC was not implementing any scheduled loadshedding and besides most of the time when the power did come on voltage was very low which adversely affected expensive electronic gadgets.

Callers from Jehangir Road, Jamshed Road and Muslimabad said that power supply in their areas remained disrupted for 8 to 10 hours daily in four or five different spells.

A resident of Block 15, F. B. Area said that, besides the regular three two-hour spells of load shedding, power supply in his area remained disrupted for two to three hours from 3 am.

The KESC spokesperson said that the city’s demands ranged between 2,300 and 2,400 megawatts while it was getting around 2,000 megawatts so three spells of two hours each of loadshedding was being carried out during the day. And if there was a shortage during the night then an hour’s loadshedding was resorted to during the night – but not between midnight and 4am . Some areas might be facing more hardships due to localized faults, which also the KESC staff tried to remove quickly, he added.

He said that approximately 80 megawatts from the DHA plant and 80 megawatts from KANUPP were not being supplied since yesterday evening which had aggravated the situation. He urged the consumers to observe power conservation so that the shortages could be met with less difficulties.

He said that the KESC was also constructing a 220 megawatt combine cycle power generation facility in Korangi which would most probably start generating electricity by the end of the year.