Dozens of KESC grids tripped: 40 percent of Karachi plunges into darkness

At least 40 percent of the city plunged into darkness as dozens of grid stations of Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) tripped in many areas. The areas of Malir, Bin Qasim, Civil Aviation Airport, Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Korangi South and East, Landhi, Garden, Saddar and Jacob Lines were worst hit as these areas were facing power breakdown since 5pm and the supply was not restored till midnight.
According to sources, not only these areas but the rest were also facing around 2 hours loadshedding after every hour. Sources said a major fault has occurred in the Pipri Circuit, affecting Bin Qasim, Malir, and Airport areas, while the high-tension line of the company, which supplies power to Korangi area, has also tripped.
In other areas such as PIB Colony, Manzoor Colony, Liaqatabad and Soldier Bazaar were also facing power outage for at least 5 hours. There were also reports of street protests in the affected areas where citizens came out on the roads and raised slogans against KESC.
However, Jan Abbas Zaidi, Chief Operating Officer for Distribution, said that due to the disruption of supply through the KESC high-tension line, the areas of Korangi East and West were facing power breakdown. He claimed that the supply to other areas such as Bin Qasim, Malir, Airport and Gulshan-e-Iqbal was being restored gradually.
The company had earlier claimed that as soon as the supply of required gas for running turbines is restored, the shortage of electricity at KESC would be minimised and hence less loadshedding.
Giving another excuse for over 350 MW deficit, official sources said that with the mercury shooting up, the use of air conditioners had increased manifold in the city thus putting extra load on the distribution infrastructure and in turn causing additional faults.
They also claimed that low gas pressure would end by Wednesday as the Sawan Gas Field was expected to resume supply sometime during midnight. At 2pm on Tuesday, they claimed, the KESC had been supplying a total of 2114 MW of electricity while the total demand stood at 2360 MW.
They further said the deficit of 246 MW had been causing a rotational loadshedding of one hour in each residential area, which had been divided into four zones in each grid station. They further said that there had been some difficulties in correcting the distribution faults at some places where the utility had needed permission to dig roads.