SITE Association of Industry (SAI) Acting Chairman Saboor Ahmed has flayed the performance of Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC), and said the KESC, on privatisation, was expected to upgrade its transmission and distribution system at least to a level where tripping and breakdowns would be avoided.
"Alas, the ground realities are just the opposite, more than 60 percent of power shutdowns and load shedding occur because of breakdowns and tripping at grids," he said in a press release issued on Sunday. The KESC has resorted to the worst load-shedding schedule on industries since April 25. It circulated a notice to the Association saying, "due to fault on a main 220 kV linking circuit between Bin Qasim Power Station and Korangi Creek Road Grid Station, KESC had to resort to load shedding in industrial areas fed from SITE, Haroonabad, Hub Chowki, Mauripur and North Karachi grid stations as well as residential load shedding".
The notice further said, "a theft attempt had been made on its blue conductor" and that "repair was in progress and hopefully would be completed till midnight on April 26". On April 27, KESC issued a similar notice regarding the theft attempt on blue conductor without indicating when the repair work would be completed.
Thereby meaning that the industries should gear up to brave load-shedding for an indefinite period.
Saboor Ahmed said that the industrialists were not satisfied with the performance of KESC and added that KESC authorities/engineers were not keeping the industrialists informed of the factual position and the developments taking place for restoration of normal supply to industries. Furthermore, SITE industries were faced with LT and HT cables network that stands totally crippled thereby leading to intermittent supply of electricity.
Adding further, Saboor Ahmed said that out of 59 feeders in SITE area 85 percent feeders were victim of overloading and tripping as a result of which frequent breakdowns are occurring with 4-5 hours interval.-PR