KARACHI, June 7: A power generating unit of the Bin Qasim Power Station ceased to work on Wednesday evening creating a shortfall of 130 megawatts in the electric supply to Karachi and forcing the KESC to resort to loadshedding across the city.

The KESC divided the city into four zones to carry out one-hour loadshedding in each zone on a rotation basis.

The fault, which was yet to be identified till late in the evening, developed in the Unit No.5 of the station at around 6:30pm.

A spokesman for the KESC said that the engineers and other staff of the power utility started rectifying the fault and, in the meantime, power shortfall was being managed by carrying out loadshedding.

Earlier in the day, residents of some blocks of Federal B Area suffered a breakdown after an 11kv underground cable was severed during the development work being carried out by the city government.

A KESC official said that a shovel struck the underground cable and damaged it. Engineers and staff were sent to repair the cable and the affected area was provided electricity under alternative arrangements.

However, consumers of the area said that power supply remained off for more than two hours and after it was restored, voltage fluctuation posed a constant threat to their electrical appliances.

Residents of various other localities also complained of prolonged and intermittent power failures.

A complainant from PECHS, Block-6, said that a daylong power failure the locality. Some other residents of the block said that although the power failures for two-three hours in a day had been a routine in the area, the daylong breakdown on Wednesday had upset them.

Shoaib Akhtar, a resident of the block, said that the power went off at around 10am and was not restored till 6:30pm. Several calls were made to the KESC’s centralised complaint centre where the staff maintained that a fault had developed in the feeder which was being rectified.

A consumer from the Sindhi Muslim Cooperative Housing Society (SMCHS) said that power went off at around 5am on Tuesday and came back at 1pm. After this eight-hour-long breakdown, the supply was again discontinued at 3pm for another three-and-a-half hours. Similar hide and seek continued on Wednesday, he added.

Residents of the Blocks 1, 2 and 3 of Jamshed Quarters and those of the neighbouring Amil Colony said that the power failures in their areas would occur three to five times in a day and the total of outage hours would come up to no less than 12.

They said that the KESC did not have any valid reason for the intermittent and prolonged power failures. The consumers were fed up with the performance of the power utility which had turned worst now.

An angry consumer argued: “When we delay payment of electricity bill, we are made to pay the late payment surcharge, but who would penalise the KESC for the intermittent and prolonged power failures? He said that if the Siemens were incapable of operating the system, it should be kicked out and the corporate heads should devise an alternative and practicable strategy to get power consumers rid of the breakdowns.

Residents of North Nazimabad, Block H, also complained of intermittent power breakdowns and the KESC failed to satisfy its consumers about the reason for the interruption.