“Prove it,” said Aslam. “We’ve sent you the bill after proving it,” they maintained. After bargaining and arguing for a long time, they let him go for Rs5,500 - for no reason.
He is not the only one. Haji Muhammad, a cloth wholesaler, received a bill for using 6,000 units of electricity. When he went to complain as his meter showed a little over 4,000 units used, the Sepco officials promised that they would adjust the increased amount in next month’s bill. “You have to pay this bill now, unfortunately,” they said.
Haji Muhammad abided and is still waiting for the day to come when they will adjust the bill. “Two months have passed and they still haven’t adjusted the amount,” he told The Express Tribune.
The Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (Hesco) was bifurcated on August 13, creating Sepco.
People were hopeful of change as they thought their electricity woes would lessen, if not end. But nothing changed. The power situation worsened, some people complained.
The people of Sukkur are still braving many hours of power outages on the pretext of a load on the grid stations and faults.
Unannounced rolling blackouts throughout the city and power suspension for five to six hours due to the “removal and maintenance of faults” is the norm.
Before Ramazan, Pakistan Electric Power Company (Pepco) had announced that the power supply will not be suspended during Sehar, Iftar and Taraweeh. However, this is not being followed as the power supply is disrupted during these times of the day in the scorching heat.
During the power failures, people complain that Sepco’s helpline is busy most of the time.
If someone manages to get through, the grid station officials have a patent answer to everything: “The power supply has been cut off from Shikarpur by the regional control centre, Jamshoro.”
When contacted, the grid station officials said that rolling blackouts are administered because the Lodra grid station, Shikarpur, which supplies power to Sukkur and other cities, is overloaded. But they were reluctant to give an accurate duration and frequency of the blackouts.
According to the officials, the announced and prolonged power outages, frequent break downs, inflated bills are “tactics” used to cover up for transmission line losses and large-scale power theft. “The secret behind these bills with wrong meter readings is just to show better recovery by the respective sub-divisions,” they explained.
Sepco CEO Shamsuddin Shaikh told The Express Tribune that the main reason behind the power crisis is an unbearable load on the city grid station, Sukkur, and the Lodra grid station, Shikarpur.
“A new transformer with a capacity of five megavolt ampere (MVA) has been installed at the city grid station and will become operative on Wednesday,” he said. This will solve the problem as some of the load will be distributed, he assured.
Regarding the Lodra grid station, the CEO said that a transformer with a capacity of 160 MVA has been installed but it was being tested. “When the grid station was flooded, the testing stopped,” he said.
“Waist-high water accumulated around the grid station but it was pumped out,” he explained. The new transformer would start within the next ten days, he assured.
Power cuts continue in other areas
Despite assurances by the government of no power outages during the month of Ramazan, residents of Lakhi Ghulam Shah, Deherki, Khairpur, Larkana, Ghotki, Faiz Ganj, Wara and Naushero Feroz are still facing six to eight hours of power breakdowns.
Meanwhile, towns and villages are facing 10-hour-long power outages.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 1st, 2010.
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