HYDERABAD: The power crisis in the interior of Sindh is deepening with an increase in loadshedding hours being reported and complaints of breakdowns being made since the 1st of Muharram.

The two major power utilities — the Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (Hesco) and the Sukkur Electric Power Supply Company (Sepco) — covering the Sindh interior areas have reportedly informed their consumers that electricity demand across the province had considerably increased due to Majalis, mourning processions and other events scheduled for the first 10 days of Muharram in almost all cities and towns.

Hesco chief executive officer Mohammed Saleem Jat has appealed to businessmen, traders and shopkeepers to close their businesses earlier than the normal closure hours to conserve energy and avoid disruption in power supply to their workplaces due to the heavy load. He suggested that all business and trade activities for the day end by sunset.

In a press release, he said the energy thus saved could be spared for the religious programmes, most of them being held after dusk.

He also urged them to stop using electricity for their billboards, signboards and hoardings and keep all unnecessary electrical equipment switched off.

“Hesco gets 551 megawatts against a demand of 900 megawatts these days,” he argued, and said the energy conservation measures would help meet the shortfall.

SUKKUR: Loadshedding hours in Sukkur, Jacobabad, Shikarpur, Khairpur, Ghotki and other districts have been increased without an official announcement in this regard.

Reports from various districts suggested that many urban and rural areas had already been facing up to 16 hours of outages a day. In other areas, the loadshedding hours had been increased from six to nine hours a day. Localised faults and breakdown occurring as a daily routine keep these areas without electricity for some more hours.

The worst-affected areas appeared to be the densely populated localities of Military Road, Nawan Goth, Bandhani Muhalla, Shalimar Road, Nusrat Colony where loadshedding for nine hours during the night is being carried out.

When contacted, Sepco officials in Sukkur city denied having increased the loadshedding hours. They also denied night-time loadshedding and attributed the outages to localised faults. However, the affected consumers at the local customers care centre alleged that the power supply suspension appeared to be ‘systematic’ as power was being switched on and off on fixed timings. They recalled that the federal ministry of water and power had categorically stated that no loadshedding would be carried out in night hours from the 1st to 10th of Muharram.They alleged that increased loadshedding was aimed at covering line losses.

They said that water supply was linked with the availability of power and excessive loadshedding had caused an acute shortage of water in these areas, where sewerage pumping stations were also not working and as a result, sewage had hit many roads and streets.

A Sepco spokesman said that a fault at a grid station had caused disruption in power supply to most areas of Sukkur. He said the utility was doing its utmost to normalise the situation.

Published in Dawn, November 1st, 2014