Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) is not meeting the electricity demand of the city deliberately to save furnace oil. The hours' long load shedding being carried out by the utility is believed artificial, as it is not using it maximum generation capacity while relying more on the supply from Wapda or power generated through gas, sources told Business Recorder on Monday.
According to the sources, the company, which is crying over reduction of gas supply from Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC), can easily meet the city's demand, which is between 1500 to 1600 megawatts, by running its electricity generating units at Bin Qasim on furnace oil.
They said the company's generation sources, which included Bin Qasim Power Plant, KTPS, rental power generators, IPPs, power generators at Korangi, Anud, and Industries have the capacity to generate around 1200 MW, 200 MW, 50 MW, 250 MW, 65 MW, 14 MW, and 8 MW, respectively making the total generation 1784 MW. In addition, almost 150 MW could also be generated by its nine gas-based power units, which have been switched off due to, what the company claims, not availability of required gas.
"If these units including that of Bin Qasim were run with their maximum capacity, the power shortages could be met easily," they added. Besides these, they said, the utility was also getting around 650 MW from Wapda. The Kanup and Defence Cogen, which are currently dysfunctional for some technical reasons, also supply around 84 MW to the company.
However, the official sources in KESC claimed that the current shortage of electricity was due to reduction in gas supply from 140 to 75 MMCFD and closure of one unit of Bin Qasim for maintenance. They said that Karachiites would be more burdened through additional electricity tariff if all the units of Bin Qasim plant were run on furnace oil.
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