There was no letup in the miseries of Karachiites as the city faced another major power breakdown following first drop of rain that fell on Monday night, exposing the K-Electric's tall claims of investing $ 2 billion in its infrastructural developments.
The city on Monday night, according to Meteorological Department, received just 2 millimeters of rain that virtually brought the KE transmission system to collapse as citizens had to brave prolonged power outages of some 15 hours.
"The unprecedented humidity created a cascading effect on the power supply chain," said a KE spokesperson. However, an energy expert Anil Mumtaz disclosed that KE lacks effective 'protective gadgets' to avert environmental disruption in smooth supply of electricity.
He blamed iron wires for the localized tripping. The abrupt power breakdown in the city after witnessing only 2mm light rain has tested the patience of KE consumers, who lambasted the power utility on social media. One of the twitter users @fhfarrukh says," This is 5th time today that area is off, this the height of KE failure! You have ruined the life of consumers in Karachi. Please encourage new investors to invest in energy sector to finish the monopoly of K Electric in Karachi." Fm8ewd says, "Sleepless night just (because) of KElectric".
tricPK" On the other hand KE in a statement said that through investments of over $ 2bn across the generation, transmission and distribution systems over the last nine years, we have been able to strengthen our system, avoid complete breakdown of network and expediting the resolution time using technology such as 'Island Mode' operations for generation plants.
Monsoon showers and precipitation, late Monday night, caused power interruptions in parts of the city including some areas of Defence, Jauhar, Malir, Gulshan and North Karachi.
The power situation was also affected by the fact that some circuits of NTDC (National Transmission and Dispatch Company) were already offline for maintenance at the time, and the load was being managed by K-Electric with system stability being prioritised. Further, due to EHT tripping the power supply from Sindh Nooriabad Power Company Limited, an Independent Power Producer (IPP) as well KE's generation plants BQPS-I and II tripped.