KARACHI: Several areas of the city continued to face prolonged outages on Saturday as K-Electric’s Bin Qasim power plant could not be restored even after two days. K-Electric was earlier facing a severe shortage of natural gas to run its power plants due to a dispute over payments with the Sui Southern Gas Company. But now, when the availability of gas has been ensured, K-Electric’s plants have broken down following a technical fault. While referring to the power interruption as a result of load management, K-Electric is suspending power supply in several areas of the city up to around 10 and 12 hours. According to the spokesperson, a temporary extension of 1-3 hours has been made in the duration of power outages in the metropolis. In the exempted areas as well, a three-hour load shedding schedule has been issued. K-Electric authorities have further said that the availability of electricity would be ensured in the next two to three days. Published in Daily Times, May 6th 2018.