KARACHI: The city has started experiencing unannounced spells of load-shedding as temperatures have risen to above 40 degrees Celsius.
K-Electric attributes the outages to reduction, below required levels, in supply of natural gas to its power plants.
In a statement on Friday, it said gas supply from Sui Southern Gas Company has fallen to as low as 90 mmcfd as opposed to 276 mmcfd, which the gas utility company is supposed to maintain for KE according to the Economic Coordination Committee’s decision.
Lower levels of gas supply have badly affected KE’s capacity to generate power – depriving the city of around 500MW during the ongoing spell of high temperatures.
The additional load-shedding has affected not just residential areas exempted from outages but also industrial zones.
In a statement, Tariq Malik, Korangi Association of Trade and Industry (KATI) president condemned load shedding in industrial areas. He said reduction in gas supply to K-Electric would cause problems for industries. “Any interruptions to power supply will affect our revenue generation potential.”
Malik urged Sindh Governor Muhammad Zubair and Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah to take notice of the situation. He also sought support from relevant authorities and departments to ensure required gas supply to K-Electric to resume generation at the level that the supply company could maintain the load shedding exemption status for industrial areas.
The Bin Qasim Association of Trade and Industry (BQATI) through a press statement also conveyed its alarm over the reduced gas supply to K-Electric (KE) by the SSGC.
Gas supply levels to KE have been greatly reduced compared with previous years. Because of this, the generation capacity of the power utility is being impaired. Rasheed Jan Mohammed, former president of BQATI, was quoted in the statement as saying, “Most of the new power plants that KE has added to its fleet are reliant on only gas supply for their operations. Without a reliable and adequate supply, how can we expect the utility to perform and cater to the demands?”
“The situation is further aggravated with the onset of summers, which is causing an overall increase in the electricity usage across all sectors. If the situation persists, it will add further stress on the system and see a rise in load shedding as well.”
Jan Mohammed further added, “As the collective voice of one of Karachi’s major industrial association, we fear an increase in forced outages in the coming days. Gas supply levels must be raised to enable KE to fully utilize its generation capacity and cater to growing demand. This is critical to avert any revenue impact on the industries due to additional load shedding that may happen. And also allow the company to gain control of the situation and prevent the spread of load shedding to the remaining sectors of Karachi as well.”
Published in Daily Times, March 31st 2018.