The Karachiites would also suffer from load shedding in the winter season, as the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC) has closed down its another power generating unit at Bin Qasim Power Station (BQPS) for next 30 days without arranging any alternative.
Highly-placed sources in the Corporation told Business Recorder on Monday the ongoing load shedding that has been carrying out in various parts of the city for the last few days, is the result of the closure of this generating unit.
They said the Unit No 3 at BQPS was gone out of bar for about 30 days from December 4. KESC officials has said the unit was closed for annual overhauling and maintenance and expected to resume functioning in January, next year. The Unit is of 210 MW capacity but is generating 170 MW electricity before its closure.
Now, the KESC is not having sufficient electricity in hand to cater to the needs of the city, even though the peak demand was reduced to 1800 MW from 2200 MW due to fall in temperature, sources added.
It is noted that the BQPS Unit No 5 of 175 MW capacity has already been closed for annual overhauling since November 16, 2007. It was stated by the KESC officials that the unit will remained closed for about 40 days and resume functioning on December 16.
But the date of resuming of the unit has also been increased till December 20, as the KESC engineers seemed to fail in completing the overhauling work of the unit in due course of time, sources revealed.
Earlier, it was expected that the load shedding would not be carried out in the city after mid of December, as the Unit No 5 of BQPS would resume power generation with an enhanced capacity of 200 MW and sufficient electricity would be available to cater to the power needs of the city.
But the closure of another generating unit for a month by KESC depicted that the Karachiites would suffer from load shedding in the winter season as well. The ongoing load shedding might continue till January 2008, as the Unit No 3 is expected to resume functioning on January 4, the sources said.
They said the KESC is facing a shortage of 110-140 MW electricity in low and peak hours at the time, mainly caused by the closure of its two 345 MW total capacity's generating units of BQPS. The peak power demands of the city in recent days has fallen between 1750 to 1800 MW. While the KESC was capable of providing only 1640-1660 MW electricity in the peak hours, sources added.
Business Recorder also learnt that another generating unit of BQPS (Unit No 6) is also not functioning well. The KESC engineers feared that the unit might also gone out of bar in coming days if not overhauled soon, sources added.
The power shortage would become more severe and load shedding of long duration for about 5-7 hours would be expected, if the unit goes out of bar or any other technical fault occur in the power generating system of the KESC, sources added.