KARACHI: Citizens of Karachi might not heave a sigh of relief during the upcoming days of Eidul Fitr due to hours-long disruptions in power supply. The K-Electric on Thursday piled miseries on consumers by announcing a two-hour loadshedding in specific areas of the city.

       A spokesman for the power utility said: “KE’s production capacity is also being affected due to a shortage of fuel. To manage the situation, 2 hours of load management is being undertaken. The situation is expected to improve following a decrease in commercial activity during Eid.”

       According to the new schedule, different localities of the city will face a two-hour loadsheding ahead of Eidul Fitr in addition to the routine power outages.

       Though the KE claimed that it was effecting to load management only in localities of high losses due to power theft, reports pouring in from across the city suggested that power outages had become order of the day in most areas of the city, even in those areas where there have been no line losses.

       According to reports, the country has been facing a worst energy crisis for the last few weeks and now the power shortfall has reached 7,468MW with total power generation standing 18,031MW and demand at over 25,000MW.

       The city has been experiencing worst power outages especially during Ramzan as most of the areas still remain without electricity for hours.

       The situation had aggravated last week after the power supply from the national grid to Karachi had been curtailed by 300MW.

       Published in Dawn, April 29th, 2022