KARACHI, May 23: At long last, a chastened managing director of the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation on Friday regretted the inconvenience caused to the public due to power breakdowns. However, he did little to prevent them from occurring, for the power breakdowns continued to plague the lives of the citizens of the city.

A press release issued by the power utility on Friday says that the leave of all the senior engineers of the transmission and distribution department has been cancelled to manage the city’sunprecedented power demand of 1970 megawatts.

However, what the press release leaves unexplained is the question why the power utility had not foreseen a power crisis and taken preventive steps in advance. Next year the power demand will again be unprecedented, for the number of consumers increases every year, particularly when the KESC has been generously issuing new power connections.

The KESC press release says: “To minimize sudden power breakdowns due to overloaded power supply network and to ensure stable power supply to the city, the KESC management has adopted constant supervision of power supply by senior engineers. A strict duty roaster has been prepared for the summer season to ensure proper electricity for consumers, irrespective of the shortage of generation or weak or overloaded transmission and distribution system. Negligence will be severely penalized.”

It adds that the chief engineers of the grid and transmission have been directed to remain on duty at the load dispatch centre during the evening peak hours from 8pm till midnight to closely monitor the extra high tension transmission system.

Meanwhile, electricity supply remained elusive in many localities of the city.

A resident of Federal B Area, Block 18, said that power cuts occurred so many times every day that it looked that they were living in prehistoric times. “Even when we do not have a power breakdown — which is not uncommon these days — voltage in our locality remains very low, which is why we cannot use many electronic equipment at home. When I tried to lodge a power complaint with the regional power station, a telephone operator told me that my complaint was a very low priority one, because KESC teams were engaged in rectifying faults in those localities which had been facing power breakdowns for hours.”

A resident of Nazimabad, Block 6, told Dawn that on Friday his locality had been without two phases. “Most people in my locality have three-phase electricity systems at home. I am a tenant and my house runs on two phases which were out on Friday. After Friday prayers, we had a power breakdown and lost all the three phases. When the power supply was restored, people got electricity but our two phases remained out of order. We had lodged a complaint early in the morning, but a KESC vehicle came to rectify the fault in the evening.”

Calling from North Nazimabad, Block L, a resident said that on Friday his locality had been without electricity for at least two hours.