2010 - KESC's best in a century

In 2010, the Karachi Electric Supply Company faced some of its most outstanding challenges and achieved extraordinary successes. During the year, the company upgraded its generation, transmission, distribution and maintenance capacity and network at a speed and volume attained never before in its entire existence spanning almost a century.
KESC was established in 1913 under the British Indian Government. A comparison of available statistics reveals that over the past 97 years, investment and development in various sectors of the power utility, executed by the Abraaj-led management, has been the highest in 2010.
KESC has one of the world's widest power consumer bases of 2.2 million is one of the largest integrated power companies across the globe, responsible for generation, transmission and distribution. It is also the single largest power company in the country and has surpassed all its local counterparts in respect of investment and development. It has outshined its own record of any single year in the past as well. While 2010 was a year full of achievements and accomplishments for KESC, the management expects even greater advancements in 2011.
There is a long list of successes that KESC has achieved in2010. A total of 450 megawatts were added to the power supply network. A 220 MW Combined Cycle Power Plant (CCPP) at Korangi was inaugurated by the Prime Minister and two gas turbine plants with a total production of 180 MWs plant were completed at SITE and Korangi in record time, which earned KESC prestigious accolades like Asian Power Awards for "Power Plant of the Year" and "Best Fast Track Power Project" in Asia.
A 50-MWs Aggreko Rental Power Plant started power generation and KESC started to receive 14 megawatts from Tuwairiqi Steel Mills and 15 MWs from Al-Abbas Textile Mills under its captive power network scheme. Three of four turbines of KESC's prime 560-MWs BQPS-II arrived from France that are presently being installed at the site. The Project will partly start generation in 2011 and will be fully operational in 2012, while 44% work has already been completed.
KESC's transmission and distribution networks were extensively upgraded during the outgoing year. Old Town Grid Lyari was upgraded, Gulshan-e-Maymar Grid Station was launched and Jail Road Grid Station started functioning. In addition, 25 km of new transmission lines were laid and 76 km of existing lines rehabilitated in the transmission network. Preventive maintenance and upgrading of the distribution network showed positive results during the summer and monsoon season when the whole network demonstrated visible stability as against the frequent power woes of previous years. The KESC also did well viz-a-viz. ratio of revenue recovery and considerably decreased its line losses as compared to previous years. This was achieved due to a very effective campaign against power theft which resulted in significant reduction in line losses for the Company. Towards the end of 2010, KESC initiated a full-fledged drive for the recovery of its outstanding dues from major defaulters in Karachi. The drive is currently in full swing and has already resulted in recovery of dues from some of the most chronic cases of non-payment in the metropolis.
During the year, KESC signed a Power Supply Agreement with PEPCO while a Fuel Supply Agreement was finalised with PSO. Both the landmark agreements are meant to ensure smooth supply of power for the city.
The load shedding duration was minimised in 2010 and hours were fixed as per pre-announced schedule. A system of reward to areas of minimum loss due to power theft and regular payment of bills was also introduced. Industrial zones and sensitive and strategic locations in the city were completely exempted from load shedding. Special exemptions from load shedding were organised to facilitate the general public during Friday prayers timings and on the occasions of Eid-ul-Fitr, Eid-ul-Azha, Sehri and Iftar hours in Ramazan, Moharram Majalis and other national and religious events.
During the recent massive flood catastrophe in the country, KESC launched an enormous flood relief operation managed and run by the utility itself at four strategic locations of Thatta District. During two months of functioning, the KESC's flood relief camps provided shelter, food, medical help and free power to over 5,000 regular inhabitants and supplied free electricity to about 30,000 flood victims in Karachi.
Under its Village Electrification Scheme, the utility provided regular power supply to several villages across the Metropolis. The utility also launched a "KESC-Community Anti Theft Social Development Partnership Project" in low income areas of the City through which illegal consumers stopped stealing power and started getting regular power connections on fast track basis.
The utility initiated revitalisation of vital organs of Karachi like voluntary power system upgrading at Civil Hospital and Marie Adelaide Leprosy Centre, holding of eye camps and Bin Qasim Community Development Project. KESC also launched an "E-Force" project to educate school kids on Energy Efficient Lifestyle Platform and participated in a Youth Festival to educate the masses on energy conservation.
Customer care facilities were also expanded and reinforced. Action time on public complaints was brought down to a few hours instead of several days of the past. During 2010, a candid dialogue was started with customers in Khuli Kucheries across the 18 towns of the Metropolis where the utility's top management held direct interaction sessions with the general public to understand their grievances.
During 2010, KESC launched several future-oriented projects which would create a long-standing impact on the whole energy sector in the country. Three projects relate to exploiting alternate fuel sources in view of the fast expanding gap between supply and demand of existing fuels like gas and oil. The first is related to converting power turbines presently run by either gas or oil, to coal fire. Study work on this project has already been started and the KESC would possibly be producing 400 megawatts of power through coal generation by 2012. KESC has already held extensive meetings on supply of imported coal from various companies in Indonesia and South Africa. This coal would be available in Pakistan at a price equal to gas and one third of oil.
The second project is related to import of liquid gas which is easily available in the international market. KESC has been talking to different companies in the United States, Europe and Japan to examine available options of liquid gas import. This would provide another cost-effective fuel for generation plants not only to KESC but to all other power generation companies.
The third plan is to produce biogas, titled: "Karachi Biogas Project." The preliminary study and paper work on this project has been completed during 2010 according to which animal waste would be acquired from milk producing farms in Landhi and used to produce biogas to run generation plants.
In 2010, KESC also launched a study on the use of "Smart Grid" which would provide digital technology to detect power theft from pole mounted transformers. This technology would help bring down the illegal use of electricity to the minimum, solving one of the hardest obstacles in the way of ending financial loss and load shedding. The United States Trade and Development Agency has already provided funds to KESC for this study and the work is scheduled to be completed by May 2011.
In view of all these accomplishments, KESC has demonstrated unparalleled performance during 2010 which was never witnessed in one single year right from the inception of the power company 97 years ago. As such, while 2010 would always be remembered as a record year of achievements for KESC, it would look forward to even greater accomplishments focused on customer convenience in 2011.