The city experienced yet another day of water and power crises as the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation resorted to carrying out load-shedding of long hours to meet 600-megawatt shortfall on Monday, forcing residents of more localities to take to the street and indulge in agitation.
Angry mobs of perturbed power consumers reacted violently to frequent load-shedding and apathetic attitude of the KESC in Korangi, Orangi, Baldia, Lyari and Saddar towns.
On Saturday, power riots had broken out in Clifton, Liaquatabad, Gulbahar, Lyari, Baldia, North Karachi and several other areas and in some localities, the protesters fought pitched battles with police, who lobbed tear-gas shells to disperse the protesters.
Tension was once again brewing in and other localities where people have been protesting against the utility.
The power cuts also affected the operation of pumping stations across the city, creating a water shortage in many areas.
According to a report, leakage in a boiler of the Unit-3 of the Bin Qasim Power plant led to the closure of the unit early in the morning while the Unit-4, which was supposed to be made operational by the end of April, has not yet been made operational.
The closure of the Unit-3 caused the KESC to carry out load-shedding for a minimum period of three hours in three/four spells a day. It virtually stopped power supply to three-fourths of the city.
Since the closure of the Unit-3, the Bin Qasim plant’s own generation capacity was reduced to almost 650 megawatts. The problem was compounded as the Extra High Tension Circuit-II of KCR-Bin Qasim tripped. The utility received 550 megawatts during the day from the Water and Power Development Authority to meet the demand of 2,209 megawatts at 3pm. At that time, the utility received 71 megawatts from the Karachi Nuclear Power Plant, 89 megawatts from the Tapal power plant (an independent power producer) and 107 megawatts from Gul Ahmad power plant (another IPP).
According to KESC officials, the power supply situation will improve once the Unit-4 is commissioned again after repairs.
Karachi’s electricity problems have worsened lately because the Bin Qasim Thermal Power Plant, one of the KESC’s largest generators, remains in dire straits despite costly repairs recently.
Designed to generate 210 megawatts, Unit-5 of the plant had also broken down recently and remained closed for over three months. Analysts say the reason why Siemens is being blamed for the recurring faults in the Bin Qasim plant is that it is responsible for operations and management of the utility.
Power consumers calling the newspaper offices to complain about the KESC’s indifferent attitude said the government had failed to address their grievances or hold the power utility accountable for the miseries it was causing to them through prolonged power cuts in extremely hot and humid weather conditions.
Students appearing in the SSC and HSC examinations have to endure the immense hardship of taking their papers without water and power being available at their centres. They said they could not properly prepare for the examinations as power cuts had forced them to spend sleepless nights and abandon studies for more than a month before the exams.
Industrialists, businessmen, shopkeepers and traders also complained of having suffered heavy losses on account of power cuts. Most of them said that the KESC complaint centres were non-responsive as nobody would attend the telephone or give a satisfactory reply if they, at all, bothered to respond.
Meanwhile, reports from different parts of the city said that the areas that had suffered more than 16 hours of power breakdown in a stretch on Saturday and Sunday continued to undergo load-shedding of three-four hours in three or more spells on Monday.
In several localities of Lyari, KESC complaint centre staff had stayed away from their place of work sensing danger of attacks from angry consumers.
Meanwhile, Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad on Monday said that the affected Bin Qasim unit had been revived and would be made operational in the evening. However, inquiries from sources at the Bin Qasim plant in the night revealed that the problem was not expected to be resolved by Tuesday.
On Saturday also, the KESC chief executive officer had assured the governor that the power supply situation would be normalised by Monday, but the situation remained just the opposite.
The Sindh governor directed the KESC to take urgent steps to overcome the power crisis and prepare a plan for him within 10 days so that urgent relief could be provided to the common man.
The CEO of the KESC informed the governor that Rs630 million had been invested for improving the system. As a result, he said, the availability of power had been raised to from 1,170 megawatts to 1400 megawatts. He also blamed the old distribution and generation system for the breakdowns.
