City braces for more load shedding

Circular debt hits Karachi Electric Supply Company once again.

KARACHI: Circular debt has hit the Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) once again.

Despite the intervention of the federal and provincial governments, KESC was first supplied additional furnace oil by Pakistan State Oil (PSO) on Wednesday morning but was then deprived of it by the afternoon. This see-saw of decisions has raised fears of an increase in rolling blackouts: six to eight hours daily.

In a meeting at Governor House on Tuesday, it was announced that KESC would be supplied furnace oil at the price of natural gas. The difference in the price of furnace oil and natural gas - the former is three times more expensive than the latter - would be covered by a subsidy from the federal government.

All was well when the additional supply of oil, needed to fill the gap created by a shortage of natural gas, was provided on Wednesday morning and KESC even announced that it would resume the old rolling blackouts schedule: one to one-and-a-half hours of power cuts three times a day. The utility also announced that industrial zones would be completely exempted from the rolling blackouts.

But the joy of lesser hours of load shedding was shortlived. PSO returned the cheque of Rs60 million paid by KESC to purchase the additional furnace oil, suspending the additional supply. PSO said the subsidy is a matter between the government and KESC and it will only supply the additional amount when the full payment is made.

According to KESC spokesman Amir Abbasi, the peak electricity demand of the city on Wednesday was 2,290 megawatts (MW) and the shortage was 250 MW - after the additional furnace oil was supplied. With the suspension of the additional supply, the shortage will again rise to 450 to 500 MW, which was created when there was a natural gas shortage. This will double the hours of load shedding in the city, according to officials.

It is feared that the industrial zones, earlier exempted, will also suffer due to the electricity shortage as load shedding there might resume, that too for another 12 hours. Or if KESC does not want the zones to be affected, they can triple the load shedding duration in residential and commercial areas.

The electricity supply from KESC will also be affected because of technical faults in the Karachi Nuclear Power Plant (Kanupp).

Abbasi said the nuclear plant is hardly supplying 80 MW of power and it is not possible for KESC not to increase the duration of load shedding.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 4^th, 2010.