Power loadshedding amid COVID-19 vexes Pindiites

Power loadshedding goes on annoying city residents in the midst of coronavirus, as most of them including elders, women and children have to stay indoors.

“With the increase in the country’s power generation capacity as claimed by the government, load shedding should have become a thing of the past. But uneasiness frequently descends on city localities, because of load shedding,” says Ghulam Shabbir.

“Life has become a nightmare because of load shedding,’ says Ahmed Ali. I see power going out every day, sometimes multiple times, without any prior notice or an explanation about the circumstances of the loadshedding afterwards,” says Aqeel Abbas, a resident of Fazal Town Phase-I.

“Some of the load shedding periods last more than an hour. And then when the power supply is back voltage fluctuates,” says Yasir Sajjad.

Residents of Old Airport Road, Jhanda Chichi, Chaklala Scheme-III, Adiala Road, Tulsa Road, Askari 7, Askari 14, Gulistan Colony, Satellite Town, Murree Road, Sadiqabad, Saddar, Raja Bazaar also made similar complaints on and around the unpredictability of power supply. In some places load shedding is not frequent but has regular occurrence.

“How can we accept repeated loadshedding as our fate and stop bothering about it? We have lived many summer mornings, afternoons and nights without power since the advent of summer season,” says Qamber Rizvi.

Aleena Ali says: “A number of reasons could be behind loadshedding such as development and maintenance work ruining power cable network. I am not sure whether the loadshedding is scheduled or due to technical glitches or some other reasons. I suspect it is done under the cover of technical fault as it always comes with subsequent notifications.”

“The infrastructure erected for taking power to the consumers is not capable of carrying precise load without any breaks. Many power transformers and long stretches of power lines are old and have not been replaced in decades though they needed to carry load more than ever before following people’s increasing dependence on electrical appliances,” says Sarah Haider.

“The number of power consumers has also increased manifold because of rapid economic development. The age-old power infrastructure is incapable of carrying the load needed to meet the current demand,” says Salman Baqir.

“Moreover, overloading renders transformers non-functional and many other transformers get burnt hampering power distribution in many areas. Several localities in the city have the highest share of burnt and overloaded transformers,” adds Salman.

Asad Raza says: “Power is so unreliable in the city that almost every household needs a power stabilizer to operate their expensive electrical equipment. High-rise city buildings have their own temporary power generation system to make dwellers comfortable during long hours of load shedding in the summer”.