Loadshedding in industrial areas: massive closure of industries feared

The industrialists have feared massive closure of industries in Karachi if Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) continued the 16 hours load shedding to industrial areas, which will not only result in mass scale unemployment but also failure in delivery of export orders.
Korangi Association of Trade and Industry (KATI) has called an emergency meeting of all the industrial associations of the city on Tuesday to discuss the issue and worked out a future line of action. The industrialists demanded of the KESC to immediately restore normal power supply to all the indusial areas of the city, as power cut would cause irreparable losses to the economy and many industries would be forced to close down.
The load shedding has created enormous problems for industries to keep the their commitment regarding exports orders, they added. The industrialists expressed the fear that if they once lost their hard-earned export markets the competitors would replace them forever.
Gas supply to the power utility was suspended on Sunday afternoon completely by Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) that caused huge shortfall in power generation. Due to the suspension of gas supply, the utility had to shift to furnace oil for power generation.
However, all its generation plants could not be run on furnace oil, as most of the units are gas-fired. Consequently, the utility has been compelled to resort to load shedding in industrial areas for about 16 hours daily. Industrialists said that the massive load shedding by KESC would result in closure of many industries, while production in many factories would be badly affected due to which they would not be able to pay the bills to any of the utilities.
They said that small industries usually run during daytime but due to 16-hour load shedding these were now forced to cut their production. They feared that the alarming situation might lead to collapse of industries in Karachi. Vice Chairman, KATI, Javed Qureshi said that power supply to industrial areas was discontinued at 6:00pm on Sunday and it was restored at 10:00am on Monday. Criticising KESC, he said that the utility was resorting to 4-hours load shedding after every four hours.
He said once a units went off it took almost half-hour to restart production. No units can operate in such a situation, he added. Chairman Federal B. Area Association of Trade and Industry (FBAATI), Mohammad Irfan said that KESC had not issued any schedule or power shut down notice regarding the load shedding in industrial areas. However, almost 10 hours load shedding was carried out in F. B Industrial area on Monday with a hint that the duration might be increased on Tuesday.
Referring to the contract of KESC with consumers for power supply, he said that under the contract KESC was bound to supply uninterrupted power to its consumers. He said that more than 99 percent industries were paying KESC bills on time and KESC was duty bound to provide uninterrupted electricity to them.
He said the SSGC and KESC should approach the government to settle their issue and government should direct KESC to ensure electricity supply to its consumers, whether its is using oil and gas for power generation. Chairman, Pakistan Tanners Association (S.Z) Aziz Ahmed said that the tanneries had to face massive loss of production due to the massive load shedding.
He said as the industry was in mid of peak leather processing season after Eidul Azha, if the load shedding was not stopped, the industry would suffer losses to the tune of billions of rupees. He said that a major part of the leather industry of Pakistan was located in Karachi, wherein about 70 percent of the exportable commodity of finished leather was processed from raw hides and skins.
The uninterrupted electricity supply was necessary for processing of leathers and if the massive load shedding was continued with the leather industry of the city would ruin. Chairman, Site Association of Industry (SAI), Abdul Wahab Lakhani in a statement criticised the power utility for restoring to massive load shedding in industrial areas.
He said KESC officials were claiming that SSGC had diverted a significant quantity of gas to the Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited to help overcome the current crisis in Punjab. However, he said, SSGC spokesman denied that the company had diverted gas to SNGPL.
Lakhani expressed his astonishment that there was no mention of gas shortage neither by representative of KESC nor SSGC at the meeting of all stakeholders held under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary Sindh, which was also attended by him on Friday January 7.
However, he said, just two days after the meeting gas supply cut to KESC was announced through media on Sunday night and was implemented immediately, without taking the SAI, which is one of the stakeholders, into confidence. Lakhani questioned the rationale of spacing the load shedding in Industrial area by four hours, ie 10 to 12am, 2pm to 6pm. 10pm to 12 mid night and 2 to 6 am. Lakhani urged the federal ministers for Petroleum and Natural Resources and Power as well as Chief Minister of Sindh to resume normal gas and power supply to the Industries in Karachi to avoid collapse of Karachi industries.