KARACHI, March 7: Prolonged load-shedding on Friday that continued for more than eight hours since 6.30 in the morning caused unrest among the citizens who blamed the privatised management of the utility for the simmering power crisis.

The situation was no better than Thursday’s when the city suffered a massive power breakdown after the National Transmission and Dispatch Company, a subsidiary of the Pakistan Electric Power Company, disconnected supplies to the privatised Karachi Electric Supply Company over outstanding dues of billions of rupees.

The power disruption caused water shortage, affected working at hospitals and educational institutions, and brought manufacturing and business activities to a halt. The sufferers criticised the utility’s management for not publicising the schedule of load-shedding so that they could have planned their day accordingly.

In the given situation, market associations and the business community have now decided to stage a protest demonstration outside the KESC headquarters on Saturday.

On Friday, the KESC could not meet the city’s power demand of 1,606MW due to more than 300MW shortfall amid continuing financial row with the Pepco. The Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) restricted supplies to the utility to 100MW, confirmed an engineer at the KESC’s load dispatch centre.

While the power demand was estimated at 1,606MW approximately in the afternoon and rose to 1,900MW during the evening peak hours, KESC’s own generation remained 962MW, besides receiving nearly 396MW from independent power producers and other sources. The utility was receiving 233MW from the two IPPs, Gul Ahmad and Tapal; 80MW from Bin Qasim’s Unit No 4; 50MW from Korangi Thermal Power Station’s (KTPS) tribune; 16MW from PASMIC; and 14MW from another small IPP.

Amid dwindling generation and outdated transmission and distribution network, sources said, the industrial sector would be subjected to prolonged load-shedding, thereby affecting their production schedule and export commitments. The situation could worsen in the coming days with a rise in temperature. In this regard, the KESC chief had also hinted that April could be crucial.

Notwithstanding Pepco’s action of suspending power supply to the KESC despite knowing that the ultimate suffers would be people, different segments of society were furious over KESC’s failure to address the problems though assurances had been given to bring about improvement in the utility’s functioning during the last winter’s massive breakdowns.

Instead of letting people suffer by suspending the supplies the two utilities could have got the issue resolved through court, said Taj Haider, former senator and member of the senate’s committee on water and power, while taking serious note of the current power crisis.

He regretted that people were not taken into confidence about the terms and conditions of the sale deed of the utility when it was being privatised and as such they were not aware of the reality behind the conflicting financial demands. He felt that the breakdowns could be part of a conspiracy for taking over the utility by some vested interest groups and warned that the upcoming government would take up the issue on a priority basis.

Mr Haider said that the utility’s management had lost its credibility because it had failed to invest in systems and improve the situation. He said the KESC could never meet the projected demand for electricity of 4,300MW by the year 2012 without investing in its own generation plants simultaneously while acquiring rental and IPP generated energy.