October 26, 2008	Sunday	Shawwal 26, 1429

KARACH, Oct 25: Citizens had no respite from power loadshedding that was extended up to more than eight hours on Saturday as the Karachi Electric Supply Company faced a 400-megawatt shortfall, sources privy to the power supply situation told Dawn.

They said Bin Qasim Thermal Power Station of the KESC with its five out of six generating units operational produced only 685MW instead of the desired output of over 1,000MW. Functioning much below the capacity, the Bin Qasim Unit No 1 produced 160MW, Unit No 2 produced 170MW, Unit No 3 produced 120MW, Unit No 4 produced 70MW, and Unit No 6 generated 90MWs.

KESC spokesman Qashif Effendi, however, put the shortfall around 250MW, citing the dysfunctional Bin Qasim Unit No 5, suspension of 80MW supply each from the Karachi Nuclear Power Plant and Defence desalination plant behind the widened demand and supply gap.

The supply from Kanupp would be available only after Nov 2 while it would take at least one more month to restore the power supply from the desalination plant, he said.

Presently, he said, each area of the city has been experiencing at least three spells of loadshedding, each time for two hours, during 24 hours on a rotational basis since Friday.