SUKKUR: Consumers are running out of patience with the Sukkur Electric Power Company (Sepco) over prolonged outages, unannounced loadshedding and breakdowns on the pretext of faults.

The main gate of Sepco head office has become a scene of protests against outages and non-repair of faulty pole-mounted transformers for the last three days.

The consumers believe that the power utility uses faults as a mere ruse to cover up line losses and show better performance in June at least on paper that line losses have been controlled.

With just 10 days left to closure of financial year 2015-16 on June 30th, the Sepco has increased duration of outages in addition to routine loadshedding on various pretexts, say consumers.

Residents of Sindh Housing Society, Bihar Colony, Shah Khalid Colony, Agha Rafiq Colony, Bashir Abad and other localities complained that power went off at 2.00 pm due to ‘development of a fault’ and did not restore till the filing of this report.

An official at the power dispatch centre at 132KV grid station on Arain Road said that power went off due to a fault in power supply line of 11KV Society Feeder coming from Site grid station and claimed the power supply was restored at 6.15 pm. But the area people rejected the official’s claim and said the power supply had not been restored yet.

The consumers also complained of receiving inflated electricity bills which often showed more units burnt than the actual reading of meters. ‘Detection units’ were also added to the actual bill at the whim of the power utility and there was no forum available to consumers to get their bills rectified, they said.

When this correspondent tried to contact the Site grid station to learn factual position, their phone was unresponsive.

Published in Dawn, June 24th, 2016