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KARACHI, June 11: Karachi Electric Supply Corporation consumers braved not only a large number of power breakdowns but also one-hour-long loadshedding on Wednesday.
A press release issued by the power utility admits that a fault in the network forced it to carry out loadshedding for an hour on a rotational basis. It says: “At about 10.30am the KESC was availing about 300 megawatts electricity from Wapda through the two Jamshoro circuits. One of the transformers suddenly developed fault and needed immediate repairs by Wapda engineers. So the KESC was asked to reduce the load below 200 megawatts and in order to continue equitable power supply to the city, one-hour rotational switching of supply was carried out proportionately groupwise.”
The press release, however, does not mention why the regional complaint centres of the KESC continue to conceal the reason of the power breakdown. Calling from Shabbirabad, a consumer said that as soon as he had a power breakdown, he called his regional complaint centre to find out when the electricity supply would be resumed because he was expecting some guests. “I was told that there was a cable fault in my locality which would be rectified in a couple of hours. Alarmed, I called the centralized complaint centre at 118. A telephone operator told me that the power supply to my locality had been switched off because of loadshedding. I again called the regional complaint centre and told them that it was not a power breakdown but loadshedding. They said that it was up to me whether I should believe the version of the regional complaint centre or the centralized complaint centre.”
A resident of North Karachi, Sector 11-A, told Dawn that his locality had faced the first power breakdown at 9.30pm the previous night. “The power supply was restored at eight on Sunday morning. The next power breakdown occurred at 1.30pm, which lasted till 5pm. Three hours later, at 8pm, the power supply once again deserted us.”
Calling from Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Askari Hussain said that out of the three phases of power supply, two phases in his area remained off all the time. “The third phase has a very low voltage which is bad for electronic equipment. As a matter of fact, a large number of electronic equipment of mine have been damaged because of fluctuation of voltage supply.”
MULTIPLE SCHEME: The Karachi Electric Supply Corporation has embarked upon multiple schemes for power supply upgradation throughout the city under the System Improvement Plan 2003-2006, a KESC spokesman said here on Wednesday, adds APP
He said the reliability and stability of the uninterrupted power supply was linked to the programme and as implementation work progressed so would the uninterrupted power supply be ensured to the consumers.
Meanwhile, the KESC chief engineers and workers are being constantly supervised and motivated by the senior management to remain alert and give prompt attention to power failure complaints being registered at the 61-complaint centres all over the city.
On an average, 30-50 complaints are lodged at a centre during 24 hours which is much less than the complaints being lodged previously.
Under the improvement plan, initially 10 new power transformers will be added, increasing the total number to 112 transformers at the 51 city grid stations and considerably reducing the overloading on the 76 power transformers, which will positively reduce the power breakdowns and ensure uninterrupted electricity to the consumers, the KESC spokesman explained.
He said at the moment about 100 additional KESC workers and engineers were exclusively deployed from 8am to 6pm to work on the power supply improvement plan in Korangi Industrial Area, whereas 200 more were working in 14 identified divisions of the city residential and commercial areas.
