KARACHI - Karachi on Saturday morning faced fourth major power breakdown in a month and the residents of one of the biggest city of the country had to spend hours without electricity due to lack of alternate electricity arrangements from K-Electric despite tall claims. The city had faced a major power breakdown on Saturday with the private power company blaming national transmission line for tripping which ultimately caused breakdown in the city.

According to reports, at least 70 percent area of the city had faced prolonged power breakdown. The areas that were affected include almost all six districts of the city from one corner of Defence and Clifton areas to Buffer Zone, Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Gulistan-e-Johar, North Nazimabad, New Karachi, Surjani Town, Nusrat Bhutto Colony, PIB Colony and further affecting Quaidabad, Korangi in Malir and Korangi districts respectively.

It is worth to mentioning here that National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) has taken took notice over repeated breakdowns in Karachi and directed the private power company KE to submit its preventive and corrective measures to overcome the situation. NEPRA also stated that K-Electric is not investing to improve its transmission and distribution network as occurrences of tripping are frequent.

On other side, provincial minister for local government Saeed Ghani expressed concerns over repeated power-breakdowns in Karachi and said that due to negligence of K-Electric power-breakdowns have occur frequently.

He further said that water supply was also badly affected due to the power-breakdowns as city facing acute water shortage while business activities have also been affected. Ghani informed that various water supply lines had been burst because of four major power-breakdowns during last 20 days. He urged the federal government and NEPRA to take notice of repeated breakdowns in Karachi and ask the K-Electric to immediately seek report of current situation.

Meanwhile, K-Electric’s Spokesperson in a statement stated that power supply to the city has been restored to routine levels after a brief interruption following tripping in transmission line of national grid. The sudden disruption in supply to city from the national grid had a rollover effect on local circuits serving Karachi. Power was restored promptly by the National grid whereas K-Electric’s plants landed safely in ‘Island Mode’ that helped catalyze the restoration process and most of the affected areas were restored swiftly. The power utility maintained close coordination with the concerned authorities during this time.

The spokesperson further stated, “Continuous investments and upgrades in the system have resulted in greater network resilience and turnaround efficiency to ensure system stability and faster restoration. KE has invested over US$ 2 billion since 2009 across the entire value chain whereas around US$ 500 million was invested alone to expand and rehabilitate its transmission network. Moreover, a US$ 450 million Transmission Enhancement Project (TP-1000) is also underway to further enhance the transformation capacity and improve reliability of power supply.”