Loadshedding: Nearly half of city cut off for 8 hours on Sunday

KESC says loadsh­edding is “absolu­tely necess­ary even though it hurts”.

KARACHI: Around 45 per cent of the city’s power supply was suspended for eight hours - from 10 am to 6 pm - on Sunday for maintenance, which the Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) says is “absolutely necessary even though it hurts”.

Shah Faisal Colony, Liaquatabad, North Nazimabad, Gulberg Town and many other areas were deprived of electricity on the weekly day off. In some areas, the power outages lasted for 10 hours.

According to KESC spokesman Aamir Abbasi, this is annual maintenance which is imperative for the sustainability of the electricity-distribution system. “We can see the result of the maintenance because as compared to last year, we had a 30 per cent decrease in faults,” he explained.

A notice is issued in newspapers every now and then, announcing the maintenance work in certain areas and warns of an eight- to ten-hour power shutdown. KESC admits the maintenance work is carried out every day in some area or another. “But we plan it in such a way that one area would go through the maintenance shutdown once every two or three months,” Abbasi assured.

People have complained that earlier on, even after the maintenance work, they have to suffer the rolling blackouts during the rest of the day. However, the KESC spokesman partly refuted the claim. “If we’re shutting down a feeder, we exempt that area from load shedding. But if we’re repairing or upgrading a substation - which affects a small area - the load shedding has to continue.”

Unfortunately, hospitals are affected and so is the water supply to areas. People have urged the utility to devise an alternate, suitable strategy to carry out maintenance without prolonged blackouts. “We have tried the strategy of back feeding, in which we supply electricity to an area through another feeder if we shut one down for maintenance. But this is very difficult because of the lack of investment.”

Abbasi explained that in 1996, one unit was installed at Bin Qasim and one was installed at Korangi in 2009. “That is the level of investment in the area. So any alternate strategy is not possible at the moment.”

But shutting the area down for eight to 10 hours is not right, is it? “The impression that an entire area is shut down for so long every time is incorrect. Our technicians make sure that they shut the area down for a couple of hours, resume the power supply for another and, if needed, shut it down again for an hour.”

There is a huge budget for maintenance and this is actually helping the electricity-distribution system, Abbasi maintained.

However, KESC officials believe that the utility saves up to 500 to 600 megawatts daily with the practice. This electricity is the supply that the utility generates itself, while it provides the cheaply produced electricity supplied to it by Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) and other power houses.

Liaquatabad power crisis

A meeting was held in the sector office of a political party at 9:30 pm on Saturday and it ended at 12:45 am. KESC officials proposed to the elected representatives that the residents of Al-Karam Square and Apsra Apartments should pay their December and January electricity bills in advance. Then KESC would visit each house in the buildings to ascertain the exact load, after which the utility would issue appropriate bills, officials revealed.

After these proposals were conveyed to the residents, their unions were scheduled to meet the elected legislators again late Sunday. The residents will keep their suggestions on the table, officials said. According to the unions’ suggestions, KESC should tell the residents to pay a certain amount at the moment, then the utility should install meters, moving them from the ground floor (the commercial area of the building) to the top floors (residential portion). According to the meter readings, KESC should provide the bills which the residents will pay.

The residents of the buildings believe that electricity theft is rampant because the meters are installed in the commercial portion.

with additional reporting by neha ansari and irfan aligi

Published in The Express Tribune, December 6^th, 2010.