KARACHI:
A sudden power shortfall in the city on Sunday evening led the Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) to shut supply to the Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) in a bid to ensure other consumers do not suffer, said KESC officials.
KESC, which is already struggling to meet the increase in power demand as temperature continues to rise, stopped the power supply to PSM when the Karachi Nuclear Power Plant (Kanupp) broke down, said spokesperson Aminur Rahman. “We have stopped the supply for seven and a half hours. I would like to stress that we have not cut off the connection. This is a part of load management as overall supply-demand gap has risen,” said Rahman.
He could not, however, confirm how much electricity was bought by the state-run PSM from KESC.
According to Rahman, almost 80 megawatts are generated from Kanupp. “Karachi’s demand has jumped to 2100MW from 1700MW in winters.”
Meanwhile, PSM said that KESC has caused the country’s largest steel factory to shut down. “We lose millions of rupees when this happens. Our steel rolling mills and hot steel mills have stopped working,” said PSM spokesperson, Muhammad Shah. He added that PSM gets 25MW from KESC while it generates 45MW on its own.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 3rd, 2012.
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