KARACHI – Despite the fact that the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) has restricted power distributing companies from carrying out more than 80 hours of load shedding in a year, the residents of Karachi have to contend with 1,080 hours of power outages.
In violation of the ‘Guaranteed Standard (GS) of Planned Long Duration Power Supply Interruption’ of NEPRA, the KESC suspends power supply to its over two million consumers for over 1,080 hours a year with its scheduled load shedding of over three hours a day and more than 90 hours a month. The residents of Karachi also have to bear with unscheduled power outages and faults.
The government’s regulatory authority clearly mentions in its distribution performance standards that power supply to urban consumers consuming the sanctioned load of 400/230 volts would not be suspended for more than 2.6 hours a month. Under the guaranteed standard-4 of the GS, only 16 hours of load shedding is allowed for urban consumers. Eighty hours of breakdowns are permitted due to distribution system overloading or inadequacies in the distribution company.
The laws allow 36 hours, 64 hours and 80 hours of maximum interruptions and aggregated durations (hours) for each individual consumer of 132/66kV and above, 33/11kV and 400/230 volts, respectively, per annum. The KESC is not only violating load shedding rules, but also neglecting the timings of power outages under the NEPRA’s rules, which state that a distribution company would make efforts that the supply to consumers is not disconnected before 6am and restored by 5pm in winter – October 16 to April 15 – and not disconnected before 5am and restored by 6pm in summer – April 16 to October 15, or any other time convenient for consumers.
But on the contrary, the majority of the scheduled outages are carried out by the KESC during 5pm to 6am. The KESC is also not meeting NEPRA’s criteria of unscheduled load shedding as the authority’s rules restrict such load shedding to only 60 hours per year. According to NEPRA’s rules, a distribution company should implement the Guaranteed Standards of Performance for each and every individual consumer as specified in Sub-Rule (3) of the authority.
In the event of planned power supply interruptions, notice should be served to all affected consumers at least 48 hours in advance excluding defence establishments, where planned power supply interruptions would take place through mutual agreement. According to sources, the KESC chief executive officer said in a meeting held recently at the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry head office that NEPRA rules were formulated in Islamabad without keeping in view the ground situation in the city.
City suffers 1,000 illegal hours of load shedding a year
