The electricity supply situation in the city worsened further on Friday, and residents and traders alike suffered from recurring, prolonged spells of power failure. This was in addition to temperatures in the city which rose to 33.2 degrees Centigrade, with 69 percent humidity in the atmosphere.

An official at the Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) said that two generation units of the Bin Qasim Thermal Power Station ceased to generate power, raising the deficit of electricity in the city to 337 Megawatts (MW). For the past couple of days, the gap in power supply and demand has ranged between 100 MW to 150 MW.

The KESC official said that Unit no.1 of the Bin Qasim Thermal Station tripped around 09:30 a.m. Friday, while Unit no.6 was shutdown for maintenance. The latter will remain out of operation for at least three more days.

On account of the large demand-supply gap, load-shedding in the city reached high proportions, with some areas having to go without electricity for at least two spells of two-and-a-half-hours each. The recurring cycles of power load-shedding were expected to continue till late in the night.

Meanwhile, various areas of the city (especially densely-populated regions) came under prolonged spells of power failures in addition to the load-shedding, owing to faults in the electricity transmission and distribution installations.

The installations and mechanisms of electricity transmission and distribution systems often get overloaded due to the phenomenal raise in power consumption with the start of summer season causing the situation of faults and tripping in the system. On Thursday there was a fire incident at the Korangi Grid Station of KESC that affected four of the power transformers installed at the grid station causing power supply breakdown in the area of prolonged duration till late Thursday evening.

Several consumers believe that the KESC management wilfully exercises the option of shutting down the power generation units especially at its Bin Qasim thermal power generation facility under the pretext of maintenance and overhauling just to conserve expenses on fuel and running the generation plants.

It is worth mentioning here that the KESC has already been facing a serious financial crisis causing the situation of default of its due payment to Wapda and its subsidiary organisations. Every other day the various channels of electronic media carry the news of phenomenal increase in tariff for electricity consumption for power consumers in the city as the power utility desperately seeks ways and means, some of them are obviously dubious in nature from the fiscal and administrative point of view, to increase its financial earnings and resources. KESC officials concerned, however, strictly deny the issuance of any official notification for increase in electricity consumption tariff.

Meanwhile, residents of Korangi took to the streets late Friday evening and staged a demonstration at the main Korangi Road to protest the situation of electricity failures and water supply shortage. Owing to prolonged and recurring spells of electricity breakdowns, affecting the installations of the Karachi Water & Sewerage Board (KWSB), several sprawling residential areas in the city have been running dry for last some days.