Despite reportedly owing Rs 30 billion to the Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC), the Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) is still crying out for gas instead of resorting to alternate fuels at its generation plants and has even released a list of allegations in its continuing tirade against the gas company that it holds responsible for the current crisis. Last week, gas supply to the KESC was curtailed from 183mmcfd to 160mmcfd by the SSGC due to lack of supply from various gas fields undergoing maintenance work. In a statement issued on Tuesday, the KESC claimed that the power crisis was aggravated due to unilateral reduction by SSGC in gas supply to the power utility.
In the statement, it was claimed that whenever there is any issue at gas fields, the gas supply to the KESC is the first to be cut off.
It was said that the KESC ‘understands its public service role’ but the SSGC does not treat the power utility as a ‘preferred customer.’ It was further claimed that KESC is at the bottom of SSGC’s priority list even when it pays the ‘highest price’ for the gas supplied.
The KESC also implied that the SSGC resorts to supply cuts on KESC only and should also curtail gas supply to the ‘handful of industries and CNG stations’. It was claimed that industries are getting gas supply of around 300mmcfd, of which 175mmcfd is used to generate power at the industries. However, the KESC serves over 20 million people and is only getting 160mmcfd. Alleging that the SSGC considers commercial interest of a handful of industrial units supreme over the basic needs of 20 million people, the KESC claimed that the power company is not asked to voluntarily reduce consumption like other industries.
The private company asked the SSGC to forcibly reduce gas supply to other industries also. Criticising the government for not implementing the Economic Coordination Committee’s decision of June 30 despite repeated requests, the KESC asked the government to observe two days per week ‘gas holiday’ in industries and CNG stations and supply the saved gas to KESC. “Why are the government and the SSGC not honouring their commitment to supply the approved volume of 276mmcfd gas to KESC as ordered by the Sindh High Court,” the power company questioned.
After failing to settle the issue with the gas company, it seems like the KESC has decided to go public. With neither the government interested in taking action against the KESC nor the power utility budging from its position, the citizens have been left at the mercy of the KESC and are forced to spend half of their day without electricity supply.However, instead of switching over its generation plants to run on furnace oil, the privatised power company further increased the duration of power shutdowns in the city from 10 hours to 12 hours; thereby affecting all domestic, commercial and industrial consumers.
The federal petroleum and natural resources minister has already made it clear that the KESC is being supplied the required gas and ‘should first clear its outstanding dues to the SSGC amounting to Rs 30 billion before demanding more gas.’
As the ultimate sufferers, the consumers continue to brave 12 hours of unscheduled and unannounced load shedding as the KESC is in no mood use furnace oil for power generation.
While no government authority or political figure has come forward to resolve the power crises, the people apart from experiencing frequent outages throughout the day, are being forced to spend sleepless nights also.
