Sindh Energy Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah and Local Government Minister Saeed Ghani have urged K-Electric to absorb some financial losses to ensure an uninterrupted power supply during extreme heat in Karachi.
The ministers said that K-Electric needed to use whatever resources it had to resolve the prevailing electricity crisis in Karachi. The two provincial ministers were speaking to the media on Wednesday after attending a programme held at the office of the Sindh government’s Energy Department.
During the media briefing, Cheif Executive Officer K-Electric Syed Moonis Abdullah Alvi said Karachi’s power utility has initiated numerous steps to reduce the duration of power loadshedding in the provincial capital following several meetings on this issue between K-Electric and Sindh government’s representatives.
He said K-Electric has started working to act upon the direction of the provincial ministers that there shouldn’t be loadshedding anywhere in Karachi from 10pm to 6am. He said that K-Electric lately had faced an electricity shortfall due to decreased power generation from Sindh’s wind corridor due to the suspension of sea breeze and the falling of five electricity transmission towers in Jamshoro. He said that K-Electric had started using high-cost diesel to produce expensive electricity while the power situation in the city had also relatively improved.
Alvi said the K-Electric would soon overcome power loadshedding at night and reduce loadshedding duration in the daytime. The K-Electric chief informed media persons that out of 2,100 feeders of K-Electric, 1,700 feeders had been exempted from power loadshedding while loadshedding of six hours to 10 hours was being carried out in the areas connected to 400 feeders where the K-Electric had over 50 percent losses.
He appealed to the consumers to least pay their electricity bills enabling the K-Electric to overcome power loadshedding. He said the areas in the city hosting Muharram processions and congregations wouldn’t be subjected to power loadshedding.
The local government minister expressed the hope that all the claims of the K-Electric chief would come true. He said it was their collective desire that people in Karachi get an uninterrupted electric supply. He said the government would fully support K-Electric’s crackdown against power theft to ensure an uninterrupted power supply to consumers in the city.
He said K-Electric should take action against the defaulters of power bills and those involved in the pilferage of electricity. He said that punishment on account of a few guilty persons involved in power theft shouldn’t be given to all the power consumers in the form of unbearable power cuts.
The energy minister said the provincial government had asked K-Electric to take all the necessary steps to ensure the protection of the lives of power consumers and ensure an uninterrupted electricity supply in Karachi.