KARACHI: Two die as monsoon rain lashes Karachi: Massive outages hit KESC network
A 30-year-old woman was killed when the wall of her house at Pahar Ganj collapsed. The body was brought to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where she was identified as Sakina.
Meanwhile, a 23-year old man was electrocuted at Kali Market in the New Karachi Industrial Area. His body was shifted to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where he was identified as Ayaz Ahmed, resident of Sector 5-G.
Sources said at least two dozen people were injured in rain-related incidents across the city. They said most of them were injured when their motorbikes slipped.
KESC network crippled
As the first monsoon drizzle hit the city on Monday night the KESC’s generation, transmission and distribution system collapsed twice in less than 24 hours, leaving almost the entire city without electricity, while no one from the privatized utility was available to explain why the system could not work despite tall claims of huge investments made to improve the company’s performance.
Many areas of the city were without electricity for the last 24 hours, but the KESC management seemed least concerned.
As Karachi received 28mm of rain when this report was filed on Tuesday night (30mm at Masroor Base and 16mm at Faisal Base), KESC consumers should be prepared for prolonged outages as the monsoon system is likely to hover for 24 to 36 hours, providing further excuse to the KESC for not tending to complaints. Lack of response from the KESC personnel was the general complaint from power consumers across the city.
Gridlock
The rain also clogged the metropolis’s road network as rainwater flooded the roads, resulting in lengthy traffic jams and gridlock on many of the city’s arterials, especially on Sharea Faisal and in Sohrab Goth. A caller stranded in traffic at Lasbella Chowk told Dawn late Tuesday night that the situation in the area was quite grim, as the road was filled with water and many cars were stuck, including ambulances. The situation in other areas of the city was no different.
After the rain started early Tuesday evening, many of the cellular networks also seemed to be jammed, as people complained of getting constant busy signals when they tried to make calls on mobiles.
When the first showers were received in some parts of the city after midnight Monday, three Extra High Tension (EHT) lines of the KESC collapsed and about 40 of the 52 grid stations were knocked out, tripping all units of the Bin Qasim, KTPS and Gul Ahmad plants and the DHA desalination plant, while de-linking the Karachi Nuclear Power Plant (Kanupp).
500 MW shortfall
Many areas of the city were still without electricity since the first breakdowns on Monday as the KESC was facing a shortfall of 500 megawatts. While there was demand for 2,350 MW, the utility had to depend on 500 MW supplied by Wapda.
The major casualty of the rain was the tripping of the 220Kv Pipri EHT transmission line of the KESC, connecting the utility’s Bin Qasim Thermal Power Station with the Queen’s Road grid station. Subsequently, the electricity output from six generation units of the Bin Qasim plant was adversely affected and at least two of them completely stopped generation.
It took several hours for the KESC officials and technical staff to rectify the faults and fully energise the circuits after the midnight breakdown. The other major fault was at the transmission circuit connecting Kanupp with the Baldia grid station, causing a disruption of 80 MW. Around 80 MW power supply input from the DHA’s Cogen plant was stopped at midnight.
The third transmission line that tripped during the night was of the Gul Ahmed-Airport circuit, further worsening the power supply situation of the city.
This was perhaps the first time that all the systems of the KESC caved in with the onset of the monsoon drizzle, while there was no visible evidence of the power company’s rain contingency plan in action. The retired army general who was made the KESC’s CEO has vanished and there was no one in the utility prepared to own responsibility.
Even after energising and revival of the transmission lines, there was a persisting shortfall of around 500 megawatts in meeting the power demand of the city, owing to which power supply could not be normalised.
Complaints of prolonged power supply breakdowns were received from the areas of Nazimabad, North Nazimabad, Federal B Area, Gulberg, North and New Karachi, Surjani, Malir, Gulistan-i-Jauhar, Gulshan-i-Iqbal, PECHS, Mohammad Ali Society, Korangi, Defence, Clifton, Saddar, Orangi, Lyari, Kharadar etc.
People suffered a sleepless night in these localities due to the frequent power outages.
Reactivation delayed
Many areas were still without electricity when this report was filed. As a result of Tuesday’s heavy showers, at least eight grid stations of the KESC remained offline, including Defence, Gizri, Korangi, Jacob Lines, Garden and Queen’s Road, disrupting electricity to a number of residential and commercial areas. The rains also delayed the process of reactivating the grid stations.
Citizens were enraged over the continuing power outages despite promises to the contrary made by the KESC officials and the federal minister for water and power.
Besides domestic consumers, traders and industrialists were also livid over prolonged outages. They accused the KESC management of misleading the government and lying to both the government and the general public.
The government, which had allowed the privatization of the utility to the Al-Jomaih led-consortium, seems to be least concerned about the plight of the citizens of Karachi, who have been demanding that instead of allowing the utility’s sale to a stockbroker or developer of Middle Eastern origin, the government should appoint an administrator to deal with the situation.
Workers of the KESC demanded that the original members of the consortium who had “manipulated” the utility’s privatization should be taken to task and an administrator should oversee the KESC’s affairs. They opposed the decision to sell stakes to another foreign firm.