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On Thursday March 6 there was no power supply to Karachi from 8 am to 11:15 pm. The public was surprised because the weather was still cool, not requiring the use of fans and air conditioners. Was it not too early for the KESC to start punishing 16 million citizens with power cuts and loadshedding?
In other places, even in our country, people mark the change of season poetically by the melting of snow, the budding of flowers, the falling of leaves in autumn, the harvests and so forth. We in Karachi mark it by the antics of the Karachi Electric Supply Company Limited. If there are hours without electricity, then we know it is summer. Hence the surprise at the massive power cut when the weather was far from hot.
Eversince that day Karachi is being subjected to massive power cuts and loadshedding of daily five to six hours at least, delivered in one and two hour periods through the day, and always at a time when we need electricity the most. This proves that the real purpose of the power cuts and loadshedding is to torture the people and not for conserving energy, nor because of short supply of electricity.
The elaborate excuse for the massive power cut on March 6 was the disconnection of supplies by the National Transmission and Dispatch Company (NTDC), a subsidiary of Pakistan Electric Power Supply Company (Pepco) over non-payment of outstanding dues to the tune of Rs 34.8 billion. If anybody thinks the power cut was aimed at punishing the KESC, I would like to sell them the Kohinoor diamond which Queen Elizabeth has gifted to me.
Nothing happened to the KESC, don't even ask what happened to the domestic, commercial, business and industry power users in a city which is called the cash cow of the country. The financial, physical and emotional trauma it caused was a hundred times greater than KESC's debt.
It was the most unkind cut of power supply. Why must the people of Karachi be humiliated for the sins of the KESC? Did the NTDC manage to recover one single rupee by this dastardly act? Was it fool enough to think it could bring KESC down on its knees begging for mercy? It was a sneeky trick lacking in moral consciousness. The NTDC despite sending weekly dunning notes to the KESC was getting no response. Now they have a military chap (retired) as the head of the KESC. His response to the demand notices was typical of military chaps. He retorted arrogantly, "We will pay as when we recover dues from the government".
A lesser mortal, such as a civilian chief executive would have handled the matter differently, as with part payment and sweet talk. So the NTDC, unable to punish the KESC, decided to cut power supply to Karachi hoping the angry 16 million people would rise up in arms and beat the daylights out of KESC personnel. They must have been mighty surprised that no power riot took place despite nearly 13 hours of power cut.
As I said, the weather on March 6 was still cool, so tempers were not hot. The NTDC is not only run by fools but has no sense of war strategy. Their timing for "punishing" the KESC was bad. It had to face severe criticism from all quarters, the public, the government and the politicians. So one good outcome of the March 6 power cut is that NTDC is not likely to try that trick again. Instead of punishing the KESC it had to face the wrath of an outraged nation. When you try to arm-twist Karachi it has repercussions through out the country.
Power supply to Karachi seems to have become a political agenda. When the KESC was privatised in 2005, the government still wanted to have control over its operations and created the Pepco. Wapda's thermal authority was made into a separate company, Pepco now handles the thermal power supply. As the bureaucracy loves red tape, a subsidiary company of Pepco was created for load dispatch called the National Transmission and Dispatch Company (NTDC).
Neither the privatisation of the KESC nor the creation of Pepco and NTDC has brought about an improvement in power supply to Karachi. In fact the situation is worsening every day, as we had massive loadshedding even in the winter months, which was unheard of in the past. So the common man's understanding of the situation is that the KESC is being deliberately turned into a sick industry by "vested interests" which want to purchase it at reduced price.
What is implied by "vested interests" is not clear. Some say it means private parties, some say it means the milbus (military business), some say it means the friends of former prime minister Shaukat Aziz most of whom are Arabs and who would like to entrust the running of their various investments in Pakistan to their favourite Pakistani. (Shaukat Aziz is very popular in Saudi Arabia and the UAE (Royalty) as he used to handle their investments when he was a banker).
Karachi cannot survive without electricity so it is a literal source of political power. This consciousness was not apparent at the time KESC was privatised in 2005. The organisation was sold for about Rs 20 billion.
The estimate of running cost of privatised KESC was expected to be low, but they were calculated at the subsidised power rates of the Wapda. Insiders said that the real reason for the huge debt the privatised KESC has incurred is that Pepco is charging Rs 9 per unit from KESC, which is much higher than when Wapda was supplying both hydle and thermal power to the KESC. Besides the Pepco, KESC has incurred debts of other power suppliers, the Independent Power Producers (IPPs) and its total debt stands at Rs 38 billion.
It is not only power cuts by those who sell electricity to KESC which is responsible for shortage of supply to Karachi. According to KESC sources the company was "not allowed" to set up new generation plants and was obliged to purchase costly electricity from the IPPs and Pepco. Wapda's own charges are not low either. Out of the 700 MW power supplied by Wapda, 300 MW is at subsidised rates and 400MW at import rates. If the KESC is truly a privatised company, who does "not allow" it to set up new generation plants?
KESC's generation capacity is dwindling day by day and it is not able to check the imbalance between increased demand and short supply.
The only step taken by the utility so far is the installation of new combined cycle plants, one of 200 MW at Korangi Thermal Power Station and another of 560 MW at the Bin Qasim Power Station. But the power cuts by other suppliers and its own aging machinery has reduced the total energy Karachi ought to be receiving.
If you add it all up in comes to 2,538 MW which is sufficient to meet Karachi's current demands for electricity. It includes 962 MW generated by KESC, 396MW supplied by the IPPs, 700MW by Wapda, 260 MW by Pepco and a total of about 220 MW available from Fauji Korangi Power Project and Western Electric Power Project, which the KESC is evading to purchase because of the higher import rate.
So it seems that Karachi's power problem was deliberately aggravated by forcing it to buy expensive electricity and by the government's non-payment of its dues, which are said to total 82 percent of the dues claimed by the NTDC. There ought not to be this plague of loadshedding 16 million people are being subjected to year in and year out.
The only time such a power shut down is legitimate for the annual preventive maintenance and rehabilitation work of the KESC's aging power generation system. This work is necessary at the start of summer every year. It is done sector-wise. So why in heaven's name are we being victimised? It seems a mighty fraud.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2008

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