KARACHI, March 22: With the mercury shooting up to 36.8 degrees Celsius, spells of hours-long power outages kept haunting citizens on Saturday as the Karachi Electricity Supply Company had to meet a shortfall of 350 megawatts for which it resorted to carry out load-shedding in all parts of the city on a rotation basis.

The shortfall in power generation persisted apparently because output of the Bin Qasim Power Plant remained marginal with three out of its six units already shut down for maintenance. The Unit No 3 that lately developed fault was generating 85MW much below the actual capacity due to a leakage in its water pump. The Unit No 6 could not be revived several days after it broke down, while the Unit No 1 was expected to resume functioning after necessary repairs by April 10.

The KESC’s plan to operate gas turbines at Korangi Thermal Power Station (KTPS) also hit snags because the Sui Southern Gas Company has declined to provide additional gas to the utility.

While considerable delay in repairs of the so-called local faults in the KESC distribution system still bugs the consumers, the utility is running out of time for settling its dispute with the Pakistan Electric Power Company (Pepco) and National Transmission & Dispatch Company (NTDC). However, sources said, the new government would assign top priority to the power issue and there were little chances of any disconnection of power supplies by Wapda as was experienced on March 6.

Well-placed sources said that the new government would examine the rationale of Pepco’s claims of arrears that multiplied mainly because Pepco was charging the KESC a tariff higher than what was being charged from other power distribution companies in the country. Pepco is charging Rs3.06 from various power distribution companies.

However, as per agreement, Wapda was charging Rs3.69 per unit for purchase from and /or sale of power to the KESC or vice versa in 2004. At the time of privatisation, the government adjusted all arrears and there was no outstanding amount left to be paid. In April 2006, Wapda moved Nepra to charge Rs6 to Rs6.5 a unit. The unrealistic and unilateral decision of Nepra and KESC’s failure to challenge it effectively resulted in piling up of arrears. The dispute aggravated instead when the rate was raised to Rs9.70 last month.

In a situation when the KESC’s privatised management has failed to improve its power generation and transmission systems besides the recovery of outstanding dues from government agencies, ordinary citizens are made to suffer without electricity.

Sources said that the present power crisis developed for the utility did not act on the advice given to it by the special committee, which was constituted on the orders of the prime minister. The committee had advised the KESC to acquire barge-mounted generation system as a short-term measure to meet the growing electricity demand until new power generation plant was established.

The persisting power outages, meanwhile, draw severe criticism from residential, commercial and industrial power consumers. They said when the KESC was aware of the depleting generation capacity why the utility did not take necessary action since March 2006 to strengthen its systems. From 1999 to 2005, they said, the military-led management focused on recoveries and failed to invest in the utility for systems improvement.