LAHORE: Repeated power supply disruption, either due to technical faults, system overloading or other reasons, is terribly affecting the routine life of Lahore Electric Supply Company (Lesco) consumers in various parts of the city and adjoining districts.

The situation seems worsening in Township, various localities near Batapur, Manga Mandi and the rural areas of Kasur, Sheikhupura and Nankana falling within service jurisdiction of high loss 11kV feeders, Dawn has learnt.

Residents in Township say they have been facing power disruption for hours despite the fact that the area falls under the 100 per cent recovery category (no loss feeders).

“Power failure, breakdowns, brownouts etc is almost now a routine. But who cares,” deplores a consumer residing in the Government Employees Cooperative Housing Society situated in the Township’s A1-sector.

The A1 sector, in addition to the routine tripping etc, witnessed three major power disruptions on Aug 16, 24 and 30 reportedly. On Aug 16, there was no light in the area almost for three hours, followed by another power suspension for almost 8/10 hours on Aug 24. In late hours on Aug 30 (Monday), the electricity supply was again suspended and it resumed at about 2am (Aug 31).“When we complained, we didn’t receive a satisfactory response from the local field staff who said the power has been suspended from the grid station.”

Talking to Dawn, Lesco’s respective Superintending Engineer (SE) Chaudhry Rasheed Ahmad claimed that all areas in his circle were being provided with uninterrupted electricity supply. “The suspension in the A1 sector happened on Aug 24 after the receiving supply jumpers (equipment) left working suddenly. Our team first tried to remove the fault and finally succeeded to restore supply. But it took some hours,” he said.

The Lesco SE said later, the equipment again stopped working leaving various localities without light. The respective Lesco division, then, decided to get the faulty equipment replaced with the new one. And they did this finally within two to three hours. But the equipment’s testing took another couple of hours. Finally the power supply resumed at 11pm or so.

“But in the meanwhile, we tried to supply power to the area from other feeders,” he said.

According to an official source in the respective Lesco division, the reason behind non-provision of light [on Aug 16] was overloading of the system. “Similarly, the power failure in the wee hours of Tuesday was also because of the overloaded system. But the supply resumed after an hour so,” he claimed.

On the other hand, a resident of Sahafi Colony (Harbanspura) also complained about power tripping time to time on a daily basis.

There are also reports about the power suspension for hours in the rural areas of Lesco.

“It is a policy of the government to observe load management for one to 10 hours in the areas falling within service jurisdiction of the high loss feeders of category one to six as per ratio of the recovery,” an official said.

FOILED: The Lahore Waste Management Company enforcement teams on Tuesday foiled a bid of stealing garbage containers in Sabzazar.

According to a press release, a team on a tip-off caught the driver of a vehicle at Kharak stop with the garbage containers. The team later handed over the driver to the local police station.

Published in Dawn, September 1st, 2021