KARACHI, June 30: The Karachi Electric Supply Corporation failed to provide electricity to its consumers who braved another hot and humid day without power supply.

A large number of KESC consumers complained to Dawn on Wednesday that their localities faced multiple power breakdowns for brief intervals.

KESC officials told Dawn that the staff of the transmission and distribution system switched off a pole-mounted transformer (PMT) for a short while at regular intervals so that it might not burn out due to the heat.

"In summers people tend to consume more power than they do otherwise. This causes overloading which PMTs find hard to withstand in the heat. The transmission and distribution staff turn off the PMTs of an area by turns," they said. However, they pointed out that the regular maintenance of the transmission and distribution obviated need for the intermittent switching off of pole-mounted transformers.

A resident of Gulshan-i-Maymar, Block Z-1, told Dawn that his locality had been without electricity since morning. "We have called the complaint centre many times, but, the KESC staff have not been able to tell us exactly why the power breakdown occurred in the morning.

Initially, they said it was a tripping. Later, they changed their statement and said that there was a cable fault in the locality. Now somebody told me that it is an EHT fault," he said. Calling from Defence Phase IV, Golf Course No 2, Shahid Saeed told Dawn that of late his locality had been experiencing more than two power breakdowns daily.