‘Inconvenience’: Several LESCO feeders shut for up to 10 hours every day

LESCO cites development work, maintenance as excuses.

LAHORE:

As many as 20 to 40 electricity distribution feeders are shut down daily for up to 10 hours by Lahore Electric Supply Company (LESCO) citing maintenance needs around the city. This is in addition to outages on account of loadshedding.

LESCO operates a total 400 feeders to supply the city with electricity.

The feeders are shut early in the morning and remain shut till midday. Some feeders are closed for repair and maintenance to prepare the system for Ramazan. The feeder closure schedule is published in various newspapers regularly but people rarely read it.

Shahid Nazir, a resident of Ichhra, said, “The BRTS system construction on Ferozepur Road has meant that electricity poles and wires are being shifted every day. We suffer up to eight hours of outages daily.”

“Getting power from a commercial feeder is worse,” he said. “Protests are of no use.”

Following the rain on Thursday and Friday outages increased to an hour after each hour of supply.

Javed Ahmad, a LESCO spokesman, said that the outages were required to upgrade feeders and shift supply utilities due to the digging for various development works. He said that grids or feeders that have faced a long closure are spared regular loadshedding. He claimed that unscheduled outages had been reduced.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 14^th, 2012.