Power outages pile up misery on Karachiites in scorching heat

Electricity supply cuts push people to protest

KARACHI:

The citizens of the metropolitan city continued to face prolonged power outages on Sunday with protests erupting in various localities.

Following the revised loadshedding schedule of K Electric (KE) complaints of power outages throughout the night in different areas of the city have become rife, locals told The Express Tribune on Sunday.

K Electric is carrying out an announced 10-hour load shedding but according to reports, the city is facing power outages for 15 hours for which K Electric take a stance that it is due to the shortage of gas.

Despite the holiday, the worst load shedding is taking place on Sunday.

On Sunday, despite a marked reduction in power demand, load shedding is going on, while on the other hand, KE shut off power supply to various areas at night.

Although, Sindh government held a meeting with the KE officials, there was no reduction in load shedding.

Karachi Commissioner too had a meeting with KE officials and as per a statement issued by the Commissioner office, KE had promised not to carry out load shedding at night but the power utility continued electricity supply load management at night too.

Electricity supply disruption has also led to water crisis in various parts of the city.

A spokesman for KE acknowledged the load shedding in the city on Sunday. He said that load shedding was taking place due to shortfall. The spokesperson said that 1,000MW of power was being supplied from the national grid to KE and IPPs were supplying 1,700MW of electricity.

More than 50 protests have taken place in different parts of the city against the Load shedding. The law and order situation in the city is deteriorating due to worst load shedding.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, July 4^th, 2022.