City plunges into darkness as electricity feeders trip

PESHAWAR: Various parts of the city plunged into darkness after electricity feeders in various grid stations in Peshawar tripped between Thursday night and Friday morning. According to Pesco, the feeders tripped as temperatures began to climb to 43 degrees Celsius.

“The electricity went out on Thursday night at iftar and was not restored until Friday morning,” Sohail Shams, a resident of Gulshan Colony in Gulbahar, told The Express Tribune. He said the feeder of his area tripped at Sheikh Muhammadi Grid Station.

He said the locality also faced acute water shortage at sehr and there was no water in the mosques as well.  Shams added frequent tripping added to their woes even after the electricity was restored.

A similar situation was witnessed by residents of Government Gulshan Rehman Colony on Kohat Road.



Manzoor Khan, a local, told The Express Tribune over the phone that power supply was disrupted in his area since Thursday night. He added the relevant authorities did not care about the power consumers even in the scorching heat of 43 degrees Celsius – that too during Ramazan.

However, PESCO Spokesperson Shaukat Afzal said the rise in temperature and the subsequent increase in electricity consumption led to the frequent tripping of the feeders and inconvenienced consumers.

A handout issued by Pesco stated there were no unscheduled power outages in the city. However, areas where line losses exceed 70% should bear the unscheduled electricity breakdown. The relevant authorities have urged the consumers to remove illegal kunda connections and consume electricity with care to avoid tripping of feeders.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 2^nd, 2016.