Lights out: Outages hit provincial hub as mercury rises
Locals from ‘exempt’ areas also complain of load-shedding
Locals from ‘exempt’ areas also complain of load-shedding. PHOTO: REUTERS
PESHAWAR:
As the temperature rose unexpectedly in Peshawar and other parts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, citizens were immediately hit with power outages.
The Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) blames outages on the non-recovery of bills in a particular area, but ground realities painted a different picture. Pesco Spokesperson Shaukat Afzal said more outages occur in areas with low bill recovery, while those localities where bills are paid regularly are “load-shedding free”.
Penalising the defaulters
“Unlike the other power distributors, we have not divided areas into urban and rural. Rather, we have divided areas on a recovery basis,” said Afzal. He pointed out there were certain areas from where Pesco did not receive a single rupee in recovery. The losses were more than 90%.
“So, if we provide more electricity, we will incur more losses.” According to Afzal, Pesco carries out, at most, 16 hours of outages a day in areas with more than 90% losses. Areas with 70% and above recovery of bills do not suffer the same fate. “University, Hayatabad, Saddar and a portion of Gulbahar are exempt,” he said, giving examples of high recovery areas.
Still in the dark
Locals, however, refuted these claims when asked about load-shedding in their respective areas. Residents of University said they live six to eight hours a day without electricity. Those who live in Gulbahar have no electricity for eight hours, similar to those who live on Charsadda Road and Dalazak Road. Meanwhile, suburban areas experience 16 to 18 hours
of outages.
“Don’t ask me how many hours of load-shedding, ask me how many hours do I have electricity,” said Taimur Khan, a resident of
Hazar Khwani.
“Areas in Saddar which fall in the army administration may be exempt from load-shedding, but the rest are not,” said Muhammad Shahid, a resident of Gulberg.
“Recovery is an excuse for legalised load-shedding. Basically, areas in cantonment are exempt because then the government starts raising its eyebrows at Pesco. The rest of the areas are not exempt regardless of recovery or thefts,” said Muhammad Irfan, another resident of Gulberg.
He rejected the “bill recovery formula”. “For those who pay their bills on time [but live in a low-recovery area], how will they be rewarded like the dwellers of Cantt?”
Irfan added Pesco had no such mechanism to save people who regularly pay bills, but live in blacklisted areas in terms of recovery.
People have started improvising to tackle the outages. “I have changed my UPS battery because summer is coming ahead of time and load-shedding situation is already at its worst,” said a resident of Landi Sarak on Charsadda Road.
A jirga of people in Kurram Agency visited the local grid station and issued a 24-hour deadline to address the issue of prolonged outages, threatening to shut down offices and bazaars in the area. The jirga leaders, including trade unionist Haji Kamal Hussain, Haji Jamil Hussain and Zahir Hussain said they were paying their bills, but were provided electricity for two hours.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 29th, 2016.
As the temperature rose unexpectedly in Peshawar and other parts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, citizens were immediately hit with power outages.
The Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) blames outages on the non-recovery of bills in a particular area, but ground realities painted a different picture. Pesco Spokesperson Shaukat Afzal said more outages occur in areas with low bill recovery, while those localities where bills are paid regularly are “load-shedding free”.
Penalising the defaulters
“Unlike the other power distributors, we have not divided areas into urban and rural. Rather, we have divided areas on a recovery basis,” said Afzal. He pointed out there were certain areas from where Pesco did not receive a single rupee in recovery. The losses were more than 90%.
“So, if we provide more electricity, we will incur more losses.” According to Afzal, Pesco carries out, at most, 16 hours of outages a day in areas with more than 90% losses. Areas with 70% and above recovery of bills do not suffer the same fate. “University, Hayatabad, Saddar and a portion of Gulbahar are exempt,” he said, giving examples of high recovery areas.
Still in the dark
Locals, however, refuted these claims when asked about load-shedding in their respective areas. Residents of University said they live six to eight hours a day without electricity. Those who live in Gulbahar have no electricity for eight hours, similar to those who live on Charsadda Road and Dalazak Road. Meanwhile, suburban areas experience 16 to 18 hours
of outages.
“Don’t ask me how many hours of load-shedding, ask me how many hours do I have electricity,” said Taimur Khan, a resident of
Hazar Khwani.
“Areas in Saddar which fall in the army administration may be exempt from load-shedding, but the rest are not,” said Muhammad Shahid, a resident of Gulberg.
“Recovery is an excuse for legalised load-shedding. Basically, areas in cantonment are exempt because then the government starts raising its eyebrows at Pesco. The rest of the areas are not exempt regardless of recovery or thefts,” said Muhammad Irfan, another resident of Gulberg.
He rejected the “bill recovery formula”. “For those who pay their bills on time [but live in a low-recovery area], how will they be rewarded like the dwellers of Cantt?”
Irfan added Pesco had no such mechanism to save people who regularly pay bills, but live in blacklisted areas in terms of recovery.
People have started improvising to tackle the outages. “I have changed my UPS battery because summer is coming ahead of time and load-shedding situation is already at its worst,” said a resident of Landi Sarak on Charsadda Road.
A jirga of people in Kurram Agency visited the local grid station and issued a 24-hour deadline to address the issue of prolonged outages, threatening to shut down offices and bazaars in the area. The jirga leaders, including trade unionist Haji Kamal Hussain, Haji Jamil Hussain and Zahir Hussain said they were paying their bills, but were provided electricity for two hours.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 29th, 2016.