KARACHI: The Karachi Electric Supply Company may increase the duration and frequency of loadshedding in the city due to a shortage in gas supply.

According to a KESC statement issued on Wednesday, the gas supply to the power utility was curtailed without any prior notice or warning on Wednesday evening.

“The KESC had been receiving approximately 225 MMCFD (million cubic feet per day) gas from the Sui Southern Gas Company against its requirement of 400 MMCFD.”

It said that after a sudden drastic reduction in the gas supply to the KESC, the current gas supply level stood at 155 MMCFD, which was highly insufficient to cater to the summer peak demand of the metropolis.

The reduction in the gas supply led to a chain reaction of tripping in the KESC power generation turbines. “One unit of the Bin Qasim power plant, two units of the Korangi power plant and the entire SITE power station tripped.”

“It is feared that the massive reduction in gas supply to the KESC will have fallout on the generation of power, which in turn will affect the unchanged loadshedding regime that had been maintained by the KESC since the past six months. Loadshedding in residential and commercial areas of the city might go up to 14 hours in a day.”

The KESC paid Rs4 billion to the SSGC on Wednesday and a payment of about Rs3.5 billion was also made last month, the statement added.

Meanwhile, SSGC’s Deputy Managing Director Zuhair Siddiqui said: “We had a problem at our Bhit gas field due to which we were losing about 50 MMCFD. Because of this we had requested the KESC three days ago to reduce their consumption by 10 to 15 MMCFD, which they did not do”.

“Due to this the line pack got depleted and the gas pressure went down. Still the problem at Bhit gas field has been rectified and things will improve as the pressure in the line builds up again,” he explained.