Residential, commercial and industrial areas will now undergo 11 hours of load-shedding in total every day from Friday.
In its defence, the Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) says it should be either provided more gas or furnace oil should be subsidised.
Spokesman Amir Abbasi told The Express Tribune that after the prices of petroleum products went up, the government subsidised diesel and petrol but not furnace oil — the main source of the utility’s power generation.
Seasonal changes, from winter to summer, bring about radical changes in demand and supply, explained Abbasi. KESC has problems meeting the increasing demand because of a low gas supply from the Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC).
For winter, KESC required a minimum gas supply of 170 million cubic feet per day (MMCFD). However, the supply dropped to a low of 80 to 100 MMCFD.
Karachi is divided according to the amount of electricity losses recorded due to power theft via kundas. Residential and commercial areas with medium losses would have three cycles of one-and-a-half hours of rolling blackouts, while the outages would last for two hours per cycle in areas where the loss is higher.
However, residents of poor neighbourhoods such as Surjani, New Karachi and Orangi Town have complained that they do not have electricity for two to three hours in each cycle, totalling 7 hours.
Industrial zones — earlier exempted from load-shedding — will also undergo four hours of rolling blackouts. The utility has divided the industrial zones in two groups: four-hour load-shedding in one group from 10 am to 2 pm, while the other group would not have electricity from 2 pm to 6 pm.
The spokesman said KESC is ready to sign an agreement with SSGC. “We have assured SSGC that the utility would pay its current bills while the issue of outstanding dues could be dealt with appropriately through dialogue,” Abbasi said.
According to officials, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani has approved the summary for a two-per cent increase in the electricity tariff and it is likely that the official notification will be issued on Saturday (today).
Published in The Express Tribune, March 12th, 2011.
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