KESC warns of severe loadshedding

Karachi Electric Supply Company on Thursday raised warning bells on the sudden and unilateral decision taken by the Sui Southern Gas Company to reduce gas supply to the utility. The unannounced reduction in gas supply which started off by the dropping of gas pressure at the power plants due to valve pinching by SSGC, was the beginning of the fiasco.
Due to this action the gas turbines at the power plants started tripping, leading not only to the damage of the equipment but also reduction in the power generation capability, a press release said. The release said that SSGC had made an irresponsible and unilateral decision to reduce KESC's gas supply from the already low level of 180MMCFD to an abysmal 120MMCFD.
KESC had many a times reiterated the fact that to cater to the city's growing power demand of 2,500MW daily, the minimum required gas supply is 276MMCFD. The supply baseline has already been merited by the ECC in its directive, advising the increase in gas supply to KESC from 160MMCFD to 276MMCFD or thereabout. This unexplained and strange move by SSGC has been made using payment dues as an excuse, which is in fact far from the truth.
In the past 12 months (July 2010 to June 2011), KESC has made gas purchases from SSGC amounting to Rs 25.6 billion, of which an amount of Rs 21.4 billion has already been paid and accounted for.
The release said that the Government institutions themselves owe KESC over Rs 22 billion of which about Rs 14.5 billion are payable by KWSB alone and the remainder is amount payable by CDGK, Police, Rangers and other provincial entities. KESC has multiple times requested the MoF to pay this outstanding amount owed by the provincial authorities, directly to SSGC and PSO to offset the amount claimed by these fuel suppliers, but till date there has been no development on the issue.
The irony of the whole episode is that KWSB has been earmarked as a 'strategic customer', despite being a defaulter to the tune of Rs 14.3 billion. In the past 12 months KWSB's power bills have amounted to Rs 4.3 billion of which only a dismal figure of Rs 250 million has been paid till date.
With Ramazan fast approaching, this created fuel supply situation is nothing but a serious attempt to create unrest in Karachi. Whether it is PSO, or SSGC, or MoF, the underlying common factor is the governmental element, which has been seen as a common factor across all elements triggering one crisis after the other at KESC. The KESC demands of the Government to immediately intervene for the sake of the 20 million customers and 40,000 industries of the city and order the increase of gas supply to the utility to the required 276MMCFD.-PR