Karachiites brave another day of prolong power cut

The Karachiites braved another day of prolong power cut as power supply from Karachi Nuclear Power Plant (Kanupp) to Karachi Electric Supply corporation (KESC) remained suspended.
The power utility carried out four to six hour-long load shedding in almost all the city areas on Tuesday, as the difference between the city's power demand and supply has reached up to 300 MW, sources told Business Recorder.
It may be mentioned here that Kanupp was shut down in the early hours of Monday as the only KESC transmission line tripped owing a to fault developed in Baldia Grid that resulted disconnection of power supply from the station to the city.
There are two transmission lines through which the KANUPP supplies about 90 MW to the KESC. But the other line is already undergoing rehabilitation from December 30, 2007 and is closed for transmission.
It is worth mentioning here that the same transmission line had also tripped on January 01, 2008 that was restored later.
However, the Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority (PNRA) at that time, besides asking KESC to improve its infrastructure, had warned if the tripping occurred again, the two units of KANUPP would not restart generation until both the lines become available for transmission with foolproof restoration in wake of their importance to reactors' safety.
A KESC official requesting not to be named told Business Recorder that the under-maintenance line is likely to take another two to three weeks to be restored, while timeframe for the restoration of the tripped line could not be given as it would be premature.
"But, the utility takes two to three days for restoration of transmission line in case of tripping", he added.
When contacted, the Senior Public Relation Officer of Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC), Tariq Rashid said that even after the resumption of the transmission line, the KANUPP would further take 18-36 hours in starting of the generation.
He said that the KANUPP suffered 11 shutdowns during 2007 due to transients or failure of the transmission lines. "The PAEC has been pressing KESC to improve the reliability of the lines and PNRA had already warned that KANUPP would not be allowed to operate if the reliability of the transmission lines does not improve", he maintained.
He said that the rehabilitation work of one of the two lines was started by KESC early this month and the PNRA had already mentioned that if this only source of power is lost, KANUPP would not restart until both transmission lines are fully restored.
According to the KESC officials, the two-hour long load shedding in daytime and of same duration in night is being carried out on rotational basis at almost all the areas of the city from Sunday.
However, several areas of the city remained without electricity for about 5-6 hours on Tuesday. The load shedding is also being carried out in industrial areas for about one to three hours despite KESC claims that the industrial customers would not suffer from power outages.
Meanwhile, the two closed generating units of Bin Qasim Power Station have not resumed functioning till the filing of this report. One of the units were out of bar for about 40 days for annual overhauling and maintenance since December 04, 2007.
The KESC would be compel to increase the load shedding duration if the units would not restart functioning or the supply from KANUPP would not resume, they maintained.