Breakdown: City plunges into darkness as feeders trip

Overloading causes major power outage; PESCO claims it is not carrying out load-shedding.

PESHAWAR: Tripping of electricity feeders in the city plunged major areas into darkness from Sehr till late afternoon, paralysing routine life on Friday.

Six feeders, providing electricity to the city’s major areas, including Banamarhi, Gulberg, Wazirbagh, Kohat Road, and Civil Quarters, tripped due to overloading. Residents ate Sehri in the dark and were unable to sleep afterwards due to the scorching heat.

Many areas faced an acute water shortage as there was no power available for tube wells. Hamad Yousafzai, a resident of Gulberg, told The Express Tribune there was no water for ablution either in his house or the mosques. Electricity went out at 3:30am and remained absent till late afternoon.

Saad Malook, a dweller of Asia Gate, said there was no water in his area from Sehri onwards. He said though the adults were fasting, children and others suffered badly due to the breakdown.



Pesco Spokesperson Shaukat Afzal told The Express Tribune they were not conducting unscheduled or excessive load-shedding in any part of the province. He said in order to accommodate domestic users, power supply was cut to industrial zones during Sehr, Iftar and Taraveeh timings.

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Zulfiqar Ali Khan lashed out at the Centre for not providing enough power to the province.

He added K-P was facing outages despite the fact that electricity generation in the country reached a record level of over 17,000 megawatts. He explained the province had a 16% share in the overall electricity which equated to 2,732MW. Zulfiqar Ali claimed only 10% of overall power, or 1,708MW, was provided.

“If the federal government provides 16% [as is K-P’s share], it will cater to the 2,400MW requirement.”

Protests

Separately, hundreds of charged protestors took the streets after Taraveeh prayers to protest against prolonged power outages in Bannu district. The demonstration was led by provincial lawmaker Fakhr-e-Azam who was accompanied by local leaders.

The rally was started from Domel and reached the 220kV grid station in Township. The protesters chanted slogans against Wapda and Pesco. Meanwhile, the duration of power outages was a staggering 18 hours or more in Batkhela district of Malakand Division.

Locals said these breakdowns had become part of their routine during Sehr and Iftar in Ramazan. Batkhela District Bar Association former president Majeedullah Khan told reporters authorities put a great load of the industrial sector onto domestic feeders and this led to prolonged outages in residential zones.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 11^th, 2016.