KARACHI: A night after the extended widespread blackout that took several hours to fix, a major part of the metropolis again plunged into darkness half an hour before sahri on Monday.

Yet it was the same story the K-Electric has explained several times in the past. The power utility said the problem occurred due to increase in humidity when the dust on the transmission lines caused tripping.

Like on the night between Saturday and Sunday when the Bin Qasim/Pipri 220-KV transmission line tripped causing a widespread prolonged outage, half an hour before sahri on Monday, the transmission lines of the Bin Qasim power plant tripped again taking down the Bin Qasim Power Station 1 and 2.

And yet again, the KE issued a statement explaining that the tripping was caused by high humidity level which went up to 95 per cent. “Humidity with heavy winds in vast fields deposited excessive dust residue on transmission lines causing the lines to trip. K-Electric’s engineers and restoration teams immediately started working on the power plants to restore power generation and by 11am more than 60pc of the city was restored,” read a KE press release.

KE CEO Tayyab Tareen requested the consumers to show patience and have faith in the power utility in these trying times while issuing assurances once again that the KE was trying its level best to overcome issues so that uninterrupted supply could be made possible in minimal time.

But several consumers calling the Dawn office on Monday said they had lost faith in KE that failed them in the most crucial of times. “It is Ramazan and they have failed to deliver uninterrupted power at least during sahri and iftar, which they had promised to do. I am beginning to think that they get some kind of sick pleasure out of making us miserable,” said Sadia Hussain from Clifton Block 8.

“So if each day, it’s the same problem where the dirt on the lines causes humidity and the sun dries it out so that power can be restored, why can’t they clean their lines? Why are they kept so dirty anyway?” asked Ali Afzal, a student calling from Gulshan-i-Iqbal. “What is the solution to this anyway? Do they want us to keep on suffering until the weather becomes dry? But there are still four or five months to go before that happens,” he added.

Arif Bilwani, an industrialist, reported that although the outage in residential areas began at around 4am and ended at around 11am, power could only be restored at around 2pm in the industrial areas of Karachi.

“Well, okay, even if I believe that all this problem about moisture and humidity is genuine, you tell me why doesn’t the same problem happen in other countries falling in our belt such as the UAE, Oman or Iran? Don’t they also experience similar weather conditions?” he asked.

“Even if we say that in some of these countries electricity is supplied through an underground cable system, who is talking about the distribution lines? The transmission lines are never underground anywhere and we are being told by KE that all these issues of dust and humidity are happening in the distribution lines, why doesn’t it happen in our neighbouring countries?” Mr Bilwani inquired.

“I wish Nepra could intervene and do something about this but from what I gather even their inquiries are cosmetic. All they do is carry out such inquiries, issue warnings or fine KE,” he complained about the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra).

Meanwhile, general secretary of the KESC Shareholders Association Chaudhry Mazhar Ali said he didn’t see things improving much until KE started regular maintenance of their feeders, etc., and upgraded its system. “They are milking an old half-dead cow, and they don’t even feed it well. Of course, the outcome won’t be good,” he explained the situation in layman’s terms.

When Dawn called Nepra member Khawaja Muhammad Naeem about what Nepra thought of the regular city-wide outages, he said the KE was facing several issues and that Nepra, too, was looking into ways of how to help it improve power distribution to Karachi. “Even while generating to maximum capacity, their system doesn’t seem to pick up. It overloads and trips. This can only be remedied through upgrade, which requires much investment.

“See, KE is running an old system from the time when people had just a fridge as heavy appliance in their homes. Today they have as many as four air-conditioners which are run all at once in the summer. That’s why KE needs to upgrade in order to handle all this extra load,” he added.

About the dust on the lines, Mr Naeem agreed that periodic cleaning was required to avoid this regular short-circuits due to humidity.

After KE had replaced their copper wires with silver wire there were accusations that it was done to sell the copper to make an extra buck and pocket the money at the expense of the consumers, but the Nepra member said it didn’t make much of a difference.

When informed that many people felt that Nepra was far too lenient with KE, Mr Naeem laughed to share that this couldn’t be true. “Had Nepra been lenient with them, why would they slap me with a one billion rupee law suit for treating them with disrespect?

“This is not true. Nepra has the best interests of the common consumer at heart and we are watching the situation in Karachi and will hopefully solve the problem one way or the other,” he said.

KE CEO Tayyab Tareen said: “We believe in the city and this country and we want our consumers to stay positive.” He urged consumers not to listen to the baseless comments made about some ministers and also not believe the different rumours floating about them.

Published in Dawn, July 14th, 2015

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