| Power cuts persist with widening supply.. |
| Tuesday, 26 August 2008 | |
|
The city fell victim to hours-long spells of load-shedding again on Monday due to the seriously-widening shortfall of electricity. After Saturday this is the second day when the Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) faced a severe electricity shortage of over 600 Megawatts (MW), causing power load-shedding three to four times during 24 hours. The overall power supply demand of the city ranges around 2,100MW. Power consumers said that certain residential areas of the city, including North Nazimabad, Nazimabad, Liaquatabad, Gulistan-e-Jauhar, Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Malir, Saddar, and Clifton, did without electricity for up to nine hours since Sunday night. Even on Sunday when the demand of power supply in the city remained well under control due to the halt of business, commercial, and official activities, residents of Karachi were subjected to more than one spell of electricity load shedding. Sources privy to the power supply situation said that the deficit arose due to the problem-plagued and fault-riddled Bin Qasim Thermal Power Station (BQTPS). The latter was producing seriously low power outputs, owing to which, the KESC is no way near to bridging the widening gap between power supply and demand. Instead of its desired electricity generation output of 1,160MW, the BQPTS has been giving a maximum power output of 650 MW. At least one thermal generation unit of the Bin Qasim plant has been lying non-functional since last week, leading to a decline in the KESC’s indigenous power generation. Further deteriorating the situation of power generation and supply in the city is the persistent non-availability of power supply input from the Defence Co-gen desalination plant and the Karachi Nuclear Power Plant (Kanupp). The Kanupp power generation tripped around midday on August 22. CRITICISM FROM SHAREHOLDERS: Meanwhile, KESC Shareholders’ Association General-Secretary Choudhary Mazhar Ali has said that minority shareholders of the power utility are concerned about the present state of affairs at the KESC, which is currently being run without a chief executive. Financial approvals pertaining to the power utility are also being issued by an officiating financial head, Ali said, adding that all this is contrary to the rules of business of the company. A majority of the KESC’s senior officers come to work late as a matter of habit, and some of them are absent on every alternative day, Ali said. The company was getting bad to worse not only in the electricity generation field but also in financial matters, he claimed. He said that corruption was at its highest level in the power utility with theft of electricity increasing everyday and the transmission and distribution losses had reached up to 38 per cent. Ali said that the self-finance scheme for new electricity connections had again been introduced which would once again open the flood gate of theft of the KESC material for sale to new consumers. He said it was very strange that in spite of shortage of power supply and overloaded system more than 5,000 new connections were sanctioned every month “obviously for the benefit of the KESC staff.” He said that more than 8,000 check meters were installed at transformers in different parts of the city in order to reduce the theft of electricity but nobody had ever bothered to take a reading of these meters. “The theft of electricity is the main cause of destruction of this company that is being done by the consumers in connivance with the staff of the company and it is essential that stern action is taken against those found involved in this crime,” Ali said. He said that the proposed increase in electricity tariff would adversely affect the company and its consumers because theft of electricity would increase and those industrialists who genuinely wanted to pay the electricity bills would close their business and would shift to other parts of the country. “The company has changed hands three times during the past three years and all those managing affairs of the KESC during this period did everything to make personal gains but did nothing to improve affairs of the company. As a result of which company has acquired a loan of Rs47 billion and also have to pay more than Rs48 billion to various organisations,” he said. The shareholders’ association general-secretary hoped that the new owners of the KESC will take charge of the company without further delay and take immediate action to reduce theft and corruption from the company besides improving its generation capacity. |
Sell your treasures at our Sale section to get the best price in town. .gif){kind=small}
Try your luck on our online selection of games jo slow bandwidth per bhi chal jaingay!
Find the nearest shopping centres from mobile malls to huge super-markets..gif){kind=small}
List of famous Hotels, Restaurants and franchises.