KARACHI, May 5: Load shedding accompanied by prolonged breakdowns put thousands of power consumers to great inconvenience on Wednesday as the Karachi Electricity Supply Corporation faced a shortage of 500 megawatts or thereabouts.
Calling from almost all the major localities of Karachi, consumers expressed displeasure over the inability of the KESC to announce a load shedding schedule in advance.
A spokesman for the KESC recalled that the city had not received power supply from the Water and Power Development Authority since Tuesday evening following the snapping of a high-tension line.
"One circuit was energized last night but the other circuit is still being repaired. The KESC is facing a shortage of roughly 550 megawatts which is being met by carrying out loadshedding on a rotation basis. At one time, the KESC switches off from 150 to 200 power feeders," he explained.
There are about 820 power feeders in the city. Meanwhile, the chairman Wapda, Tariq Hameed, assured the KESC that the Jamshoro-KESC link would be repaired some time tonight. The KESC spokesman quoted Mr Hameed as telling the KESC managing director, Brig Tariq Saddozai, that a direct link between Hubco and the KESC would be established within 18 months.
He added that the direct link would enable the KESC to overcome the shortage of electricity it currently faced. A large number of KESC consumers called the Dawn office to say that their localities had prolonged power breakdowns on Wednesday.
A residence of Defence, Bahria, Phase V, called to say that his locality had suffered two power breakdowns: one from 9am to 11am and the other from 6.15pm to 8.15pm. She said that the KESC should have been thoughtful enough to announce a loadshedding schedule which would have enabled KESC consumers to reorganize their lives accordingly.
She said her children were having their exams these days and they were most inconvenienced by power shutdowns. A residence of Federal B Area, Block 15, said that his locality had a power breakdown at 11 o'clock the previous night.
"And the power supply was finally restored at around 9pm on Wednesday. Apparently a wire had snapped in our locality and KESC engineers took around 22 hours to repair it," he said.
Calling from Defence, Phase VI, Qazi Amir said that his locality had a prolonged power breakdown the previous night. "We remained without electricity for a couple of hours.
The telephone number of the localized complaint centre was incessantly engaged. And telephone attendants at 134 said that they could not do anything about the power breakdown," he said.
A resident of Korangi said that his locality had been without electricity for more than three hours on Wednesday. A resident of Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Block 14, said that he worked on a night shift the previous night and returned home in the early hours of Wednesday.
"I was hoping to get some sleep, but apparently the KESC had other ideas, for our locality had a power breakdown early morning. I had no option but to leave the bed," he said.
A resident of North Nazimabad, Block L, said his locality had been without electricity for at least three hours on Wednesday. Another resident of the same area said that a power breakdown in his locality had occurred in such a manner that it cause voltage fluctuations.
"As a result, my computer broke down. Interestingly, the computer was connected to a stabiliser, but the fluctuation was so abrupt that even the stabiliser knocked out," he said.
A shopkeeper calling from Saddar said that power breakdowns had adversely affected the commercial activity in the city. He added that people were buying generators and uninterrupted power supplies in increasing numbers.