KARACHI, Aug 27: Widespread and prolonged power outages in Karachi and most other parts of the country continued on Wednesday while the government allowed the utilities to increase their tariff despite their failure to provide uninterrupted supply.

Karachi suffered long hours without power because of the failure of the privatised KESC to reduce loadshedding hours.

KESC’s generation remained almost at the low level of Tuesday but no one from the utility offered any regrets or explanation to consumers nor did it take any corrective measures.

While the total demand in the city was around 2,200MW, the KESC faced a shortfall of about 700MW, causing prolonged disruptions which left many areas without supply for four to five hours.

Lahore, Faisalabad, the federal capital and other cities and towns were also hit by massive loadshedding and there were reports of protests in many areas.

The Pakistan Electric Power Company had said on Tuesday that the duration of loadshedding had been increased because of reduction in gas supply to power generation units caused by terrorist attacks on pipelines supplying gas from the Zamzama field to the Sui Northern Gas. Gas supply to Muzaffargarh Power House, Kot Addu Power Company and Faisalabad Gas Turbine Power Station was disconnected, which resulted in a 1000MW reduction in power generation.

The situation has now improved a little.

Reports of massive loadshedding were also received from Hyderabad and Mirpurkhas.

The unscheduled loadshedding is also affecting industrial productivity and commitments related to export orders.

Leaders of the Anjuman-i-Tajran Hyderabad, Electronics Association and Tajran-i-Latifabad told this correspondent that the loadshedding had caused huge losses to manufacturers and made timely completion of export orders difficult. They pointed out that many factories in Hyderabad Site were facing 6 to 8 hours of loadshedding and their business had been affected severely.

Power supply to parts of Balochistan was disconnected when a 132kv Sibi-Harnai-Loralai double-circuit tower was blown up.

The affected areas included Loralai, Zhob, Killa Saifullah, Muslim Bagh and Pishin.

Now, Zhob, Loralai, Killa Saifullah and Muslim Bagh grid stations will be connected to the Sakhi Sarwar-Kingri-Loralai circuit and Pishin, Gulistan, Killa Abdullah and Chaman will be linked with the Shaikhmanda thermal power station.

Qesco sources said the closure of the line had caused an 80MW shortfall which would be met by a further reduction in supplies from Pishin, Gulistan, Killa Abdullah and Chaman grid stations till the installation of a new tower on the Sibi-Harnai line.

Ahmad Fraz Khan adds from Lahore: The power crisis worsened on Wednesday before easing a little in the afternoon, with the Pakistan Electric Power Company (Pepco) promising further improvement by midnight when the Zamzama gas field returned online.

According to the company’s officials, the reduction in gas supply caused a shortage of almost 1,300MW throughout the day before the ministry moved in to arrange fuel for combined cycle plants and they resumed generation using diesel.

“It was a national emergency as people throughout the country took to the streets after suffering hours of additional loadshedding,” says an official. Nerves were frayed as the company resorted to “unannounced” loadshedding to manage almost 15 per cent additional deficit, taking the total tally to around 35 per cent, he said.

By the evening, the power deficit had been reduced to 4,000MW and it would come further down to 3,500MW by Thursday morning, he said.

In the afternoon, the Kot Addu Power Company and Muzaffargarh Power Station resumed generation on alternative fuel and the rest should follow by midnight when Zamzama gas field would come online, the SNGPL claimed.

With all units (Kapco, Muzaffargarh and rental power plants) returning to generation, the deficit should drop to a more manageable 3,000MW, Pepco director-general Tahir Basharat Cheema said. With the situation returning to pre-gas crisis stage, the company would be able to stick to a six to seven-hour loadshedding schedule without causing much social unrest.

“It was also the nature and location of units going offline that caused the three-day disaster,” he said. Had Guddu Power Station been hit, the situation could not have been as worse. With independent power producers in the middle of the generation system going out, Pepco had to transfer power from one end of the country to another. It only accentuated problems of power managers, he said. “Some 20 to 25 per cent of the industry, which had been hit by the crisis over the past three days, has also started coming back online,” he added.

All three components of the power system -- generation, transmission and distribution – were stretched, leaving no room for any contingency, said another official. Even one unit going offline triggered a crisis for the entire system as had happened over the past days.

With three IPPs -- Saif, Sphire and Orient – set to come online by the end of the current year and Malakand-III assuming full generation, the country would have a relief of around 650MW, he said.

A Pepco spokesman said the utility was ready to ensure much better supply during Ramazan, especially after the Mangla reservoir would attain its conservancy level of 1,202 feet by Sept 2. Generation from Mangla would be more than double of the current level.