Unscheduled power outage: KESC looks to NTDC for solution

KESC says outages caused by a drop in supply of power from the national grid, which meets some of the city’s demand.


Our Correspondents June 16, 2012

KARACHI:


People from across the city experienced another day of recurring power breakdowns on Saturday as complaints surge of home appliances failing due to short-circuits.


Prolonged power outages continued in Gulshan-e-Iqbal, FB Area, Gulistan-e-Jauhar, and Orangi, which has seen its power demand shot up to over 2,600 MW. “It has become really frustrating to wait for power supply to resume,” said Adnan Ahmed, a resident of New Karachi. “And it resumes for just a while before there’s a blackout again.”

The Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) says the outages have been caused by a drop in supply of power from the national grid, which meets some of the city’s demand. The intermittent outages are reportedly being caused by tripping at its grid stations in certain areas.

Muhammad Faraz, a resident of the FB Area, said he had to spend Rs3,000 on repair of split/air conditioner. “Whatever the reasons for the power breakdowns, I just want to know who is going to compensate my loss?”

Karachi has largely escaped prolonged outages, which have prompted violent protests in other parts of the country, but the recent breakdowns are testing peoples’ nerves in the port city as well.

The KESC says that the entire issue is out of their hands and all they can do is try and “contain” it because the source of the problem comes from the National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) which supplies KESC with 650 megawatts.

“There has been absolutely no change in schedule from KESC and no matter how normal our system is running, the tripping and outages are occuring because of problems with NTDC’s supply,” explained KESC spokesperson, Aminur Rahman. “It is putting a huge strain not only our consumers but also on our own grid stations which, if they take too much tripping, can lead to major and expensive damages.”

Published In The Express Tribune, June 17th, 2012.

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