Powerless: City plunges into darkness as feeders fail K-Electric again

The power utility claims only one of its 60 grid stations developed a fault.

KARACHI: K-electric seems to have failed its customers on the hottest days of the year as citizens were forced to brave more than 24 hours of unannounced load-shedding in different parts of the city on Sunday.

Though the K-Electric claimed that only one of its 60 grid stations developed a fault, tripping 30 feeders as a result, reports suggested that over half of the city plunged into darkness. For this, the power utility had no explanation.



"There is no power since the last 24 hours and no one responded to our calls at the complaint centre throughout the night," complained a resident of North Nazimabad.

Almost the whole city was engulfed in a black-out on Sunday night. The worst-affected areas were Lyari, Keamari, Kharadar, Numaish Chowrangi, PECHS, Defence, Clifton and Gulistan-e-Jauhar.

"The power utility, which had proudly announced to make 56 per cent of the city free from load-shedding, appears helpless now," said Imtiaz Hassan, a resident of Safoora Goth. On the other hand, a senior official of the power utility told The Express Tribune that most of the electric feeders in the city had tripped due to the excessive load.

Traders' woes

The president of Sindh Tajir Ittehad, Farid Paracha, claimed that the load-shedding had severely affected businesses in the city. "When we complain, the power utility blackmails us by threatening to severe connections to our shops."

Paracha went on to say that businesses were affected earlier by the law and order situation and were now being forced to bear the brunt of power outages.

What the utility claims

According to the K-electric website, electricity is supplied through a network of power lines and substations which are managed by distributing the areas into four regions. These regions are later divided to 28 distributions centres. The utility claims that the distribution network helps them ensure smooth power supply to the city.

Paracha, on the other hand, believed that these claims were worthless and that the company was simply minting money without providing services. For his part, the K-Electric spokesperson told The Express Tribune that the main switch line at the Garden Grid station had developed a fault due to which 30 feeders had been compromised. He added, however, that the problem was soon resolved by the K-Electric staff. 

Published in The Express Tribune, June 10^th, 2014.