With the closure of Karachi Nuclear Power Plant (Kanupp), an Independent Power Producer and a furnace oil-based unit of 200 megawatts at Bin Qasim Thermal Power Plants (BQTPP) of Karachi Electric Supply Company, the electricity shortfall swelled to over 350 MW, resulting in hours long loadshedding in the city.
The supply of 80 MW to KESC was suspended, as Kanupp has gone offline Wednesday morning. According to Tariq Rasheed, official spokesman of Kanupp, the nuclear plant has gone off due to some faults, which would be rectified in 4-5 days. The life in the holy month of Ramazan has been badly hit by the unabated and hours long power outages as the company's power generating capacity of BQTPP has declined to around 750 MW out of its capacity of 1150 MW.
Sources said that only one unit out of the five BQTPP units was running on furnace oil while the rest were running on gas with low capacity of electricity generation. Despite of government directives and assurance of reducing the power outages in Ramazan, people in different areas of the city were facing loadshedding for at least one hour after every three hours.
According to sources, KESC, at it, again has started closing the oil-based units to save money. They further alleged that the management of the company was deliberately reducing the power generating capacity to save fuel. However, the official sources claimed that the closed unit of BQTPP would reach its maximum production by early Wednesday evening.
They also claimed that on Wednesday the company was facing a shortfall of 200 megawatts as it was supplying 2047 MW against the total demand of 2247 MW. Presenting excuses for the power breakdowns in many areas of the city due to the tripping of Mauripur High Tension Circuit on Tuesday night, they said that there had been two theft attempts on HT lines by unknown culprits; one had proved unsuccessful as the security guards on duty intervened right in time but in the second attempt at a dark and isolated place, the culprits succeeded in stealing a conductor causing the circuit to trip which in turn sent a few grids offline.
All grids, closed after the tripping had been fixed and the supply was restored, they added. While there were reports of power outages in different areas during Iftar and Saher, the KESC sources claimed that since the advent of Ramazan, the company has been maintaining uninterrupted supply during Iftar and Saher. They said loadshedding at some places was because of local faults, which was rectified immediately after the report.
They said during last 24 hours, the utility had repaired 12 main cable faults. A wire was broken in Gulshan-e-Hadeed, three cables pick-axed in KDA Scheme No 1 because of the City Government development work in that area, a PMT developed constraints at Zahidan Chowk Malir and a conductor was broken in Baldia.