City of lights fell into darkness

The city of lights fell into darkness due to prolonged announced and unannounced load shedding, causing trouble to citizens.

As per details on Saturday, two 220 KV and three 132 KV lines suspended electric supply, resulting in suspension of 20 out of all the 60 grid stations of Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC).

Almost 50 percent localities of the city went into darkness for 10 to 14 hours. Areas hit by the problem were North Nazimabad, Orangi Town, North Karachi, Defence, Saddar, Landhi, Garden, Lyari, Malir, Gulshan-e-Hadeed, Gulistan-e-Jauhar and various parts of District East, West, and Central.

Massive electricity collapse also affected Eid shopping as except market of Tariq Road there was not a single market, where electricity supply was provided. Crime ratio increased during the period of darkness, as reportedly, 40 cell phones were snatched in every half an hour. Worshippers offering Taraweeh prayers in mosques also faced problems. Karachiites were forced to have Sehri without electricity and water.

In a statement issued here on Sunday, KESC stated that this unprecedented complex tripping had a cascading effect, which in turn led to automatic tripping of approximately 35% to 40% of the Grid Stations supplying power to the city.

The unexpected tripping on the Extra High Tension Transmission (EHT) circuits was brought about by the consistently high levels of stagnant humidity on the outskirts of the city where these transmission lines are located.

In early morning hours of Sunday, Jamshoro Transmission Line also went into tripping, which led to the suspension of 650MW from NTDC, further adding to the situation of power outage in the city.

KESC task teams were mobilised immediately and a state of emergency was declared in KESC main command and control center.

The situation was brought under control by the early hours of the morning and many of the areas were powered up. Unfortunately, during this period of crisis some unscrupulous elements of society committed thefts at a number of substations stealing expensive equipment like bus bars, grips and panels. This has led to isolated consumer issues, which are being addressed on war footing.

Meanwhile, massive electricity failure also hit the pumping stations of water supply of Water Board at Dhabeji, Pipri and Gharo. A 72-inch pipeline of the Water Board has also burst due to the repeated power ons and offs. Talking to Daily Times, Managing Director of Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) Misbahuddin Farid said, “Electricity failure started yesterday night after 08:00am, which affected KWSB’s many pumping stations.” Farid said that continuously ons and offs of electricity created technical problems in stations through which on Sunday 80 percent routine water could not be supplied to the metropolis and three to four days would be required to fulfill this huge gap.