KARACHI: Ignoring all the fuss recently created by the Sindh chief minister, ministers, opposition parties and others over extended power outages and improving power supply, K-Electric on Monday announced that areas exempted by them from loadshedding earlier would also be facing power cuts.

In its recent press statement, KE requested its customers to avoid using unnecessary electric equipment at this time of heatwave in Karachi. They said that with the rise of temperature, the demand of electricity had exceeded to a record high of 3,100 megawatts. Added to that “Kanupp [Karachi Nuclear Power Plant] is down due to technical reasons after which the 70MW KE buys from it is missing from the system. On the other hand, low level of gas supply at various other power plants has also affected the overall production of electricity in the city,” the statement read.

A KE spokesperson further stated that certain exempted areas would also face load-shed on selected feeders due to an increase in temperature and to manage power supply and maintain equal distribution across the city.

The areas that were exempted from loadshedding had been marked as low-loss areas by the power utility as they had not found any problems with power theft there and the residents had been paying their bills regularly. These comprise SITE, Saddar, Clifton, Defence Housing Authority (DHA), Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Tipu Sultan Road, Korangi Industrial Model Zone and Bin Qasim besides Hub and Uthal.

Meanwhile, KE also has medium-loss areas marked, which are Lyari-I, Bahadurabad, Garden, F.B Area, North Nazimabad, North Karachi, Gulistan-i-Jauhar and Shah Faisal Colony with intermittent pockets of low-loss areas.

Earlier, the low-loss areas experienced no loadshedding while the medium-loss ones experienced two to four hours as the high-loss areas such as Baldia, Orangi, Surjani, Gadap, Malir, Lyari-II, Nazimabad, Liaquatabad, Korangi and Landhi got six to eight hours of loadshedding.

But now as the temperature soars and the demand for power reaches 3,000MW while Kanupp, too, is said to not be working with low gas pressure, KE has decided to go ahead with loadshedding all over Karachi as, according to them, it will help them balance out the loadshedding and prevent loadshedding in other areas beyond 7.5 hours in 24 hours. The previously exempted areas will face around three hours of loadshedding daily. Meanwhile, consumers were urged to conserve energy until the situation was brought under control.

‘K-Electric just doesn’t generate up to its true capacity’

“Oh, K-Electric is going to start loadshedding in previously exempted low-loss areas? Well, now they tell us. We have been experiencing this loadshedding of theirs for several days now but they weren’t admitting it earlier,” said a resident of Defence Housing Authority. “Every time we complained about loss of electricity to them they would give silly excuses such as technical fault, tripping or something else. But you tell me, why would their technical faults happen at the start of the hour and end after exactly half an hour or one hour?” he said. “They have been carrying out loadshedding all along. They are only going to do it and call it what it is now.”

Another resident of a low-loss area in North Nazimabad Block-L said that such outages were the least of his problems but the voltage fluctuation really tested his patience. “The voltage drops to 60 and 80 and the next second it is back to 220. I’m tired of complaining about this but the problem just doesn’t get fixed,” he said.

Another resident of Clifton quipped that earlier people from low-income areas were dying from heatstroke but now there would also be news of the well-to-do succumbing to it.

Many experts who understand power generation and are familiar with KE believe that if KE wanted it they could prevent loadshedding in Karachi. “But KE just doesn’t generate up to its true capacity,” the general secretary of KESC Shareholders Association, Chaudhry Mazhar Ali, told Dawn.

“All this loadshedding is a show carried out to make it look like that they are running short of power so that they can help themselves to that extra 650MW reserved for them from the National Transmission and Dispatch Company in case of a shortfall,” he said. “Mind you, the contact for receiving these extra megawatts expired back in March itself. KE, actually, is creating this loadshedding drama by intentional reduction in power generation as it wants the renewal of the contact with the NTDC on its own terms. Due to all this emergency created the government has no choice but to give them 650MW without a contact.”

Besides that 650MW, KE itself generates around 940MW of power on its own. They have six units at Bin Qasim-I that had capacity to generate 210MW each but they are not as efficient as they used to be so can generate up to 170 MW now. All six are also not working with two closed for coal conversion and the remaining four also not running. But the two units at Bin Qasim-II generate 560MW. Another new plant there also generates 90MW of electricity. Besides this there is the four Korangi Thermal Power units that generate 50MW each. A new plant here as well also generates 90MW.

Another 70MW is bought from Kanupp with around 250MW coming from Tapal and Gul Ahmed. From Anud Power they get another 14MW. All Pakistan Textile Mills Association gives 6MW. Add that to the 650MW from the national grid comes to around 2,180MW. “If all KE’s power plants start running, they can easily generate 2,400 or 2,500MW, which can cover Karachi. Even if the demand may be what they say of 3,000MW, they are dealing with it through loadshedding anyway as they don’t bother about the citizens of Karachi but their own profit making. And this is how this company is turning over a profit through carrying out and planning intentional loadshedding,” said the KESC Shareholders Association general secretary.

“Their duel fuel plants that run on furnace oil as well as gas generate power from gas while getting away with fuel adjustment charges every quarter with the excuse that furnace oil is becoming expensive.”

‘KE fluctuations tripped Kannup’

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) has said that Kannup only provided 80MW to KE which it could not do on Monday due to KE’s own issues with power fluctuation. “There was too much fluctuation in KE own grid due to which Kanupp auto tripped. This is a safety precaution on our part. As soon as KE’s grid is stabalised, we can restart our function and supply of power to KE will be normalised. Therefore KE’s saying that Kanupp is shut due to technical error is incorrect. And carrying out three-hours and more loadshedding in the entire city for just the loss of 80MW for one day is also very strange,” he said. “After all what is a meagre 80MW in front of 2,100MW?”

On their part KE showed surprise at the statement issued by PAEC. “When the supply is coming from their side how can KE have contributed to their tripping or whatever it is that they are going through? As it is Kanupp remains closed for almost six months in one year,” said KE’s chief marking officer Usama Qureshi.

About creating an artificial power shortfall and carrying out planned and intentional loadshedding, he said that these were all baseless allegations. “See, things had become quite bad due to the heatwave but we were able to fix things and control all the faults. Now even though things have improved, political parties and some elements are exaggerating everything. They are politicising things and bashing up KE for no fault of ours. KE is a successful company that has done so well in the recent past in overcoming its losses. Our good work is recognised and cited internationally. Governments looking into privatising their power sector cite KE’s example. It is sad that just having encountered problems during the heatwave has turned everyone here against us,” the KE official regretted.

Published in Dawn, June 30th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play