While the citizens were expecting reduced load shedding in Ramazan after the government ensured enhanced gas and furnace oil supply to the Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC), the power utility switched off its two electricity generating units on Wednesday for maintenance.
Last week, the Federal Petroleum and Natural Resources Ministry had directed the Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) and the Pakistan State Oil (PSO) to restore fuel supply to the KESC despite its long-standing issue of circular debt. After the assurance, the KESC announced it would reduce the duration of load shedding in the city from eight hours to at the most 4.5 hours.
However, with the citizens braving at least 8 to 10 hours of unscheduled power shutdowns, two units of the KESC’s Bin Qasim Power Plant – each having a generation capacity of at least 160 megawatts (MW) – were switched off on Wednesday, sources told Pakistan Today, adding that the reduction in supply of 320MW would further aggravate the power crisis in the city.
Beside the closure of two out of six units of Bin Thermal Qasim Power Plant, the functional units are also being run on lower capacities even as all the power generating units are dual-fuelled and can be run on either gas or furnace oil.
It is worth mentioning that each unit at the Bin Qasim plant has already gone through maintenance procedures during the past nine months, as from November to March each of the power generation units was closed down for at least a month.
The sources alleged that the power utility’s fresh move was to save fuel because with limited gas supply from the SSGC, the privately-run KESC needs to buy more furnace oil to run the power plants.
Despite the KESC receiving furnace oil at subsidised rates and gas at the agreed level, the power company’s management has failed to ensure reduction in load shedding, and switched off its own units while relying mostly on the electricity supplied by the Pakistan Electric Power Company (PEPCO).
Although the federal petroleum ministry and Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad managed to persuade the SSGC to supply at least 200mmcfd gas and the PSO to increase furnace oil supply to the KESC even without payment of billions of rupees, the citizens have continued to suffer long hours of unscheduled power outages during the first two days of Ramazan.
Even as the SSGC officials confirm that the agreed 200mmcfd of gas is being supplied to the KESC, no reduction in load shedding hours has been observed so far in any parts of the city.
