In a city that has ballooned from less than one million to over 20 million people in just a few decades, keeping the lights on is no small feat.
In a city that has ballooned from less than one million to over 20 million people in just a few decades, keeping the lights on is no small feat.
Karachi, Pakistan’s financial nerve centre, contributes 25 per cent of the country’s GDP and generates about 50 per cent of its revenue. To power this economic juggernaut, Karachi depends on a dense, immense electricity infrastructure that has continually evolved to meet its growing energy demands. The story of this network is synonymous with that of the city, overcoming challenges and expanding together, fuelling Karachi’s relentless growth and buttressing its role in the national economy.
Today, you flip a switch, and just like that, your home in Karachi is illuminated. For many of the 3.6 million (and growing) electricity connections, the relationship begins and ends here. But behind this simple act is a complex journey that electricity has undertaken to reach you. The light that fills your room, the power that charges your devices, and the energy fuelling your everyday life could be generated via hydroelectric dams thousands of kilometres away, coal-fired power stations in the country’s interior, or sprawling power complexes located on Karachi’s coasts.
Once produced, this electricity travels through a vast network of high-voltage transmission lines spanning 20,000 kilometres, almost as long as the Great Wall of China. It criss-crosses the city’s maze-like landscape and suburbs before reaching substations that distribute it to neighbourhoods and finally to homes and businesses. This intricate web of electricity generation, transmission, and distribution is the lifeline of one of the world's most densely populated megacities. What was once a modest power grid has transformed into a vast and intricate system connecting millions of people across this teeming metropolis we call home.
As Karachi urban sprawl has expanded, so have the complexities of its electricity needs. The city has grown rapidly, often without much planning, leading to sprawling settlements that press dangerously close to vital infrastructure. Urban encroachment, rapidly growing settlements, and aging infrastructure all have tested the system’s resilience. Yet, despite these challenges, the network continues to evolve on the back of sustained investment, integrating newer technologies and innovations to keep pace with the 3400 MW demanded by one of the world’s fastest-growing cities.
So, where does your power come from, and how does it make its way to you? It’s a journey through a network that mirrors the city's growth -- an interconnected system that reflects Karachi’s ambition and the challenges of keeping pace with its breakneck development.
The story of Karachi's electrification began over a century ago when the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC) was established in 1913, marking the city's first steps into the modern age. At the time, Karachi was a small but rapidly growing port city where the first power plant, set up in 1914, brought electricity to its early residents. As the years passed, Karachi’s population soared, and with it, the demand for power grew exponentially.
As such, the demand for electricity was not only increasing in the metropolis, but on a national level as well. From 2003-2004 onwards, electricity demand began rising sharply, partly due to economic growth and the expansion of the Pakistani economy. By 2007-2008, demand was increasing at a rate of 10 per cent, while the country’s generation capacity was only growing by 2.0 per cent annually.
The shift from hydropower to thermal power generation, relying heavily on imported fuel, particularly furnace oil, also increased generation costs. Managing the mismatch between supply and demand and rising fuel costs became unmanageable for Pakistan and for Karachi as well. This gap, initially moderate, grew into an acute shortfall, leading to extensive loadshedding across Pakistan, bleeding into Karachi as well. Perhaps this was the first instance when people became widely aware of the term ‘loadshedding’, without anticipating it to be a centre of conversation for generations to come.
Today, most of Karachi’s electricity still comes from conventional sources, with roughly 97 per cent generated from fossil fuels such as coal, furnace oil, and RLNG, of which 94 per cent are imported. However, the tides are quickly shifting. Recently, the company broke new ground by opening competitive bidding for 640MW of renewable energy projects across Sindh and Balochistan
Amidst the power crisis, the recently privatised electricity provider of the port city, now K-Electric, needed time to prepare and implement the company’s turnaround, involving substantial new generation capacity, a detailed diagnostic, investments to upgrade distribution networks, along with handling managerial and operational systems. Hence, people being people, left empathy on the sidelines when united in mutual plight, criticised the privatisation for all the wrong reasons, and attributed the new era of substantial power outages to the new management.
Today, as per the company’s investment plan for the next seven years, K-Electric’s territory spans over 6,500 kilometres, with a network of 74 grids and 1,400 kilometres of transmission lines and 30,000 kilometres of distribution lines delivering electricity to 3.7 million customers across the city and its surrounding areas. This extensive infrastructure is sourced from a diverse mix of energy types to meet the city's complex and growing demands.
Power supply in southern Pakistan -- far removed from the dams generating the nation’s cheapest electricity -- is dominated by thermal generation sources and reliant on transmission interconnections within the National Grid. K-Electric’s own power plants, a total installed capacity saw over 1900MW added post-privatization representing the bulk of the $4.4 billion investment the company made in the first two decades as per their annual report of 2023. Today, most of Karachi’s electricity still comes from conventional sources, with roughly 97 per cent generated from fossil fuels such as coal, furnace oil, and RLNG, of which 94 per cent are imported.
However, the tides are quickly shifting. Recently, the company broke new ground by opening competitive bidding for 640MW of renewable energy projects across Sindh and Balochistan. Of this tranche, the first projects of 150MW received a bid for the country’s lowest solar tariff to date, which was quickly beaten by an even lower bid on the country’s first 220MW hybrid solar and wind power project. Over the next few years, a concerted effort is being made to double the generation capacity on the renewable front, recognising the urgency to address the energy trilemma for its customers.
One element was to enhance generation capacity. The second leg of the turnaround was to enhance generation efficiency. Optimising generation is important to extract the most units of electricity from the least amount of fuel usage. Every percentage point improved directly reduces the costs incurred, finances which could be routed towards other operational improvements.
Abbas Hussain, chief generation and transmission officer at K-Electric shares: “When you look at power production, it’s not just about adding new power plants but about making sure they are running in an optimal manner. Power production for large cities like Karachi is a delicate balancing act where minor deviations can incur significant financial costs or put the system’s stability at risk… Post privatisation, we focused on adding higher efficiency generation, enabling us to reduce the cost to produce electricity. This is one of the reasons why if we compare the Fuel Charge Adjustments passed to customers in KE’s territory with CPPA, KE’s weighted average comes out to be lower.”
Meanwhile, the company has also tested its first 500 kV grid station – the KKI Grid -- connecting Karachi with the National Grid. Per Nepra’s ‘State of Industry Report 2023’, there are only 19 grids operating at this highest voltage level across the country, relaying electricity across the longest distances.
These interconnection facilities are the lynchpin enabling supply of additional affordable electricity towards Karachi. These interconnections play a crucial role in ensuring that Karachi’s electricity demands are met, particularly during peak consumption periods to ensure the city has access to reliable power.
(To be continued)
The writer is a freelance contributor.
