Prolonged electricity outages hit city on first day of Ramazan

Karachi
With the start of Ramazan the city residents that were already braving severe hot weather were also subjected to prolonged electricity loadshedding.
The areas facing power outages included Nazimabad, North Nazimabad, Korangi, Surjani Town and Shah Faisal Colony.
The affected residents of these areas complained that they constantly called at power utility’s complaint centers but no one responded and only recording narrating the ‘remarkable’ performance of K-Electric was being played on the number.
A resident of Shah Faisal Colony demanded of the corps commander to look into the corruption of the power utility that was binging agony to the citizens.
He deplored the performance of the Sindh government, saying it has failed to resolve the water and power crisis.
Meanwhile, the KE has denied any increase in loadshedding in the city.
The KE spokesman said that despite some reports circulating in the media, the loadshedding duration has not gone up in any part of the city.
“Duration of loadshedding is still the same. We have only changed the timings for outages after which people are thinking that the duration has gone up. The change in loadshedding timing has been done to facilitate Sehr and Iftar”.
He said on the other hand, on the night of June 18 gas pressure went to devastatingly low levels at KE’s SITE and Korangi plants which run on gas, and due to low gas pressure and quantity from SSGC’s end, electricity generation got affected which caused outages in some parts of the city.
“Electricity demand has also gone up and has touched 3,100 MW which is a record high for Karachi, and the rising temperature has pushed this demand up.”
The KE has also apologised the consumers for facing the brunt of outages and assured that the power utility would try its level best to overcome these issues.

MQM condemns outages
The Muttahida Qaumi Movement has condemned the unannounced increase in loadshedding, saying that claims by the K-Electric of reduction in power outages during Ramazan have proven wrong.
In a joint statement on Friday, the MQM Sindh MPAs said it was a sheer injustice to resort to long durations of loadshedding creating immense problems and mental agony for the citizens.
They said that long spells of unannounced loadshedding had significantly affected daily routines of people despite the fact that they pay their electricity bills regularly.
The MPAs asked as to how long this situation will continue and how long will people have to suffer because of the inadequate distribution system and inefficiency of the K-Electric.
They urged the people at the helm of affairs for efforts to give respite to people in this regard.

KE version
Despite some ongoing reports circulating in the media KE has rebutted such reports and says that load-shed duration has NOT gone up in any part of the city.
Spokesman KE said, “Duration of load-shed is still the same, we have only changed the timings for load-shed after which people are thinking that the duration has gone up. The change in load-shed timing has been done to facilitate Sehr and Iftar”.
On the other hand, on the night of the 18th, gas pressure went to devastatingly low levels at KE’s SITE and Korangi Plants which run on gas, and due to low gas pressure and quantity from SSGC’s end, electricity generation got affected which caused outages in some parts of the city.
Electricity demand has also gone up and has touched 3,100 MW which is a record high for Karachi, and the rising temperature has pushed this demand up. On the other hand KE’s team has been deployed in areas where there have been reports of faults due to wire-snaps and illegal connections.
In the end, KE would like to apologise to those consumers who faced the brunt of outages and would like to assure them that the power utility is trying its level best to overcome these issues, especially during the month of Ramadan.