Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC) on Monday morning faced sudden shortage of power of about 350 mw from the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda), disturbing the entire distribution system of the metropolis.
According to KESC spokesman, the National Power Control Centre (NPCC) at Islamabad, instead of 650 mw, all of a sudden restricted the Corporation to get only 300 mw electricity from Wapda, by passing an order to the utility's load dispatch centre (LDC) and simultaneously shutting down the Jamshoro circuit. In this regard, the KESC had no choice but to follow the instructions of NPCC because Wapda had put off Karachi-Jamshoro circuit, the spokesman said.
He said: "Only 300 mw electricity was available, through Hubco link to KESC from Wapda, instead of 650 mw the corporation was getting so far. In this situation, the utility had no choice but to carry out load shedding of about 200 to 300 mw, while power consumption has already increased due to hot weather, he said, adding that the current power demand of the city has gone up to 2100 mw.
"Due to shortage of electricity, the KESC started group-wise load shedding, on emergency basis, from 9:30 am onwards," he said. He said that the duration of load shedding by KESC is about one to one-and-a-half hours, on rotation basis, throughout the city. The corporation has been making all efforts to obtain full load from Wapda, but till the restoration of power demand, the load shedding would continue in the city till such time as more power is available from Wapda, the spokesman added.