Troubled by the decline in gas supply, the Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) has decided to increase power load shedding hours for the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB), which has not paid its dues worth Rs 15.3 billion to the power utility.
According to the KESC, the KWSB has been provided with uninterrupted power supply despite the non-payment of dues mainly to facilitate the residents of Karachi. However, given the circumstances that the Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) is giving to leeway to the KESC in terms of gas supply, the power utility will be unable to continue providing uninterrupted power supply to the KWSB.
The water board would either have to curtail its power consumption by 50 percent or face load shedding at its installations.
According to the KESC spokesman, gas supply to the power utility’s plants has fallen to an abysmal level of 115mmcfd, which is merely 40 percent of the required and approved quota of 276mmcfd.
At the current level of gas supply, the KESC’s generation capability has reduced by 600MW, including the 350MW from the Bin Qasim II Power Plant – a project that cost $450 million dollars and would be able to generate 560MW by the end of the first quarter of the next year.
The KESC spokesman said that being a private sector entity, the KESC is fully aware of the importance and the role of the industrial sector and that is why it had declared all industrial zones of Karachi exempted from load shedding.
“However, with the unilateral action of the SSGC to reduce gas supply to the KESC, it has become impossible to keep industrial zones exempted from load shedding,” he added.
“But if the gas supply improves to even 250mmcfd, load shedding in residential and commercial areas will be reduced immediately and all the industrial zones of city would again be exempted again.”
The spokesman said that the current power crisis in the city has been brought about by the “unexplainable actions” of the SSGC, as only the KESC has been subjected to the cut in gas supply, while all other gas consuming sectors have only been asked for a ‘voluntary reduction’.
