KARACHI: The Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) has increased unscheduled load shedding for the residents of the city to as much as nine hours a day, citing shortage of gas-supply to its power plants as the reason. However, the Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) has actually increased gas supply to KESC by 40mmcf.
The KESC has extended the duration of power shutdowns even though the electricity demand in the city has reduced. Besides the six-hour daily scheduled load shedding, the company has resorted to cutting off citizens’ power supply by more than eight to nine hours everyday.
“The SSGC is now receiving gas from its Bhit and Qadanwair gas fields and therefore it has increased gas supply to the KESC from 140mmcf to 180mmcf on Friday morning,” the spokesman for the SSGC told Pakistan Today.
He said that the SSGC was supplying gas to almost all KESC power plants, the only exception being the Bin Qasim power plant which was experiencing a slight shortfall.
Sources at the KESC said that the company usually tried to save furnace oil by not running its power plants to their full capacity.