KARACHI: Even though the weather has improved to some extent, the problem with electricity just doesn’t seem to end as starting from Saturday night the city experienced another massive power breakdown.

There was no electricity in Clifton and Defence Housing Authority, where after playing hide and seek throughout the night, things stabilised at around 3pm on Sunday.

From Nazimabad a resident complained that they were particularly miserable during Sahri as they had to prepare and have it in the darkness, not to mention the heat. The power breakdown lasted throughout the night in the area.

Iqbal Ahmed, a resident of Federal B Area, meanwhile, said that he had lost all faith in the providers of power — K-Electric — and decided to get mosquito mesh, etc, from the market the first thing on Monday morning so that he and his family could sleep on their terrace during the night.

“If I had been a rich man, I would have spent on solar panels and windmills so that I no longer had to rely on the power utility, but for now the mosquito mesh will do,” he told Dawn.

People from different areas in the city said that they experienced extended outages the whole night that continued in the morning and even in the afternoon.

The KE, which failed its consumers from the beginning of Ramazan, explained their side by issuing a detailed statement.

They said the problem occurred due to a tripping of the Bin Qasim/Pipri 220kV transmission line due to high humidity levels.

The National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) transmission line faced a similar issue as the current humidity levels were up to 99 per cent in the area of Pipri.

Giving details, the statement said that on Saturday night the 220kV BQ-Pipri Circuit-4 tripped due to high humidity. There was a breakage of earth wire which also fell on the other circuit on the same tower and tripped it as well. As a result the remaining circuits I and II also tripped.

With this, the South side of the KE network disconnected from the north side of the KE network.

Adding further details, the press statement said that following the tripping of the circuits the Bin Qasim power station II also tripped, however BQ-I units continued to dispatch.

The north side grid was not connected to the national grid due to the breakdown of 500kV circuits between Dadu and Jamshoro, which occurred on July 7.

The KE was also unable to connect the south side BQ generation with the north side NTDC generation as two critical NTDC 500kV circuits (Hubco-Jamshoro and NKI-Jamshoro) also tripped (due to high humidity) rendering the north side system even more vulnerable.

High levels of humidity are a hindrance in the quick restoration process; heavy winds in fields deposit excessive dust residue on transmission lines which due to humidity turns into grimy clay. The moist soil cannot be removed until the heat of the sun dries the soil.

Published in Dawn, July 13th, 2015

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