Back in business: Power supply to industries improves

Businesses hail KESC and SSGC efforts to ease crisis.

KARACHI: Power supply to major industrial zones of Karachi improved on Wednesday as Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) resumed uninterrupted power supply to major industrial zones of city after Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) improved gas supply to KESC. Industrialists who were perturbed upon the sudden increase in the duration of loadshedding which shot up to 16 hours a day have taken a sigh of relief.

KESC has been supplying uninterrupted power to Industries for the last 15 months hence the sudden shock of 16 hours of loadshedding was a nightmare for KESC’s preferred customers. KESC’s response came after industrialists, Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) and KESC officials met on Tuesday on the call of Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad.

The SSGC spokesperson told The Express Tribune that SSGC increased gas being supplied to KESC to 90mmcfd from 50mmcfd on Wednesday morning. “We will further increase this as soon as we get more supply from gas fields,” he said.

Korangi Association of Trade and Industry (Kati) chairman Johar Ali Qandhari hailed KESC’s assurance of uninterrupted power supply to the industrial areas of Karachi despite the shortage of gas. In a statement on Wednesday, he said that KESC eased up a lot in load-shedding in industrial areas on Wednesday despite receiving less supply of gas from SSGC.

Qandhari also said that KESC is still not receiving 110mmcfd, which is required for uninterrupted power supply to all industrial areas. However, at the same time, he welcomed the gesture of SSGC to increase gas supply to KESC despite a drop in supply from its gas fields.

An emergency meeting of industrialists was held on Wednesday to discuss the situation. The meeting was attended by Pakistan Tanneries Association (South Zone) Chairman, Aziz Ahmed, and representatives of various town and industrial associations.

They appreciated the efforts of Governor Sindh, Dr Ishratul Ebad for timely intervention and appointing a committee comprising business community representatives and heads of KESC and SSGC to resolve the problem. They said that the power crisis is threatening many industries which could result in huge lay-offs in Karachi.

SSGC is facing a gas shortage of up to 300mmcfd and this years’ increase of 65mmcfd in gas shortage has also widened the demand and supply gap. KESC is the biggest consumer of SSGC and owes Rs23.6billion to the gas company. Gas demand is continuously increasing in country and it jumps up in winter every year bringing tough management challenges for SSGC.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 13^th, 2011.