PESHAWAR, June 14: Frequent, hours-long disruptions in power supply owing to technical faults in the system have added to the misery of people already braving the scheduled loadshedding and an unbearable heatwave that has gripped most parts of the Frontier province for the past couple of days.
People in different parts of the provincial capital suffered four to five hours of power breakdowns on Thursday in addition to the ‘load-management schedule’ as the temperature touched the 43 degrees Celsius ark with 30 per cent humidity.
Tripping of transformers at grid stations, snapping of high-voltage wires and out-of-order transformers were said to be the common reasons causing the breakdowns.
People of Hayatabad, Phase-I, complained that the transformer providing electricity to their area went out of order late on Wednesday night and it took almost 14 hours for the Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) staff to restore the supply.
Residents of Naveed Colony and GT Road spent the night without electricity as the transformer feeding their locality also went out of order. The supply was restored in 20 hours.
The power supply to other areas also remained suspended for more than the announced duration of loadshedding. These affected areas included Hazarkhwani, Badbher, Acheni, Kohat Road, Warsak Road, Dalazak Road, Pakha Ghulam, Samar Bagh, Garhi Baloch, Pahari Pura, Duran Pur, Charsadda Road, Sethy Town, Faqirabad, Saddar, Hayatabad and University Road.
People took to the streets in Dera Ismail Khan, Mardan, Swabi, Charsadda, Nowshera, Dir, Bannu, Tank and adjoining tribal areas in protest against suspension of power supply.
A Pesco spokesman attributed the disruption of supply throughout the province to excessive use of electricity during the ongoing heatwave.
“Four to five air-conditions are running in each shop in the large business centres and the domestic consumption has almost doubled. The transmission system cannot bear the excessive load, causing the tripping of transformers at grid stations and snapping of wires,” he said.
He urged the consumers to avoid excessive use of electricity.
Meanwhile, NWFP Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani directed the Pesco authorities to replace rusty transmission lines and upgrade the system. According to a handout, he assured Pesco of the provincial government’s cooperation in this regard.
Presiding over a meeting at the Chief Minister’s House, he asked Pesco to improve voltage and prepare a people-friendly load-management strategy to address the growing unrest among the people because of increasing outages throughout the province.
The chief minister directed the Pesco authorities to keep constant interaction with the elected representatives.
He said the present loadshedding was unbearable and the elected representatives were being compelled to express their anger.
The chief minister asked the Pesco chairman to expedite work on village electrification as proposed by MPAs, for which funds had been put at the company’s disposal under special grants and the Taamir-i-Watan Fund.
He directed the Pesco chief executive to visit all the districts to hold meetings and public hearings to get firsthand information about the public’s grievances and find a reasonable solution to the problems.