The Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) has normalised the load shedding schedule in the metropolitan after stability was achieved in electricity supplied by the Water and Power Development Authority as well as the government’s commitment to supply additional furnace oil to the power company to make up for the gas shortage, Pakistan Today has learnt.
The industrial areas have been exempted from electricity outages once more from Tuesday, whereas the load shedding hours have been brought down to four and a half hours a day in residential and commercial areas.
The KESC hopes that the power supply from the National Transmission & Despatch Company (NTDC) would be stable as fluctuations could adversely affect the power company’s systems and cause interruption in stable electricity supply to its customers.
Additionally, the feeders that had been affected due to under-frequency relay from the NTDC during the past few days would now be exempted from load shedding for the next couple of days as compensation to the connected consumers.
The KESC has been making all-out efforts over the past week to overcome the issues of fuel shortage and frequency fluctuations that forced the power company to increase load shedding hours on the one hand and caused frequent tripping or shutdown of the power generation and distribution system on the other, causing undue outages.
As a result of the KESC’s hectic efforts, gas supply has been marginally increased to 190 millions of cubic feet per day (mmcfd), whereas the NTDC has been able to stabilise the power supply frequency at least for the time being.
This quantum of gas is still below the approved quota and the KESC’s requirement of 276 mmcfd to run power generation plants at their full capacity.
Therefore, the power company sought additional supply of furnace oil that was agreed in principle on Tuesday and the formal approval is still awaited.
The KESC has expressed hope that the arrangement for additional oil supply would be implemented in the larger public interest.
The power company has also acknowledged and appreciated the role of Petroleum and Natural Resources Minister Dr Asim Hussain in this regard.
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