K-Electric Introduces New Load-shedding Schedule

K-Electric (KE) has announced a new load-shedding schedule for its consumers effective from 1 July, aimed at mitigating night-time load-shedding in cognizance of the existing power supply constraints. As quoted by ARY News, KE’s spokesperson said, “This revision in timing is in line with our discussion with various stakeholders including the Ministry of Energy Sindh as well as Commissioner Karachi. We are making every endeavor to seek support in mitigating these issues”. “The updated schedule of the new load-shedding regime has been made publicly available on KE’s website. Consumers can use their account numbers to find their individual schedules. KE is also duly communicating to registered consumers via KE’s SMS service,” the spokesperson stated. “Uninterrupted power supply will continue to feeders powering Karachi’s industrial zones and strategic feeders including those energizing Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) and strategic installations such as Karachi Airport,” the spokesperson explained. KE specified that the new load-shedding schedule is applicable on a daily recurring basis, and interruptions in the power supply due to mandatory maintenance on the network or technical faults are not linked with the load-shedding. It added that its teams will be available to ‘rectify known issues’ and its call center number ‘118’ can be contacted around the clock. Additionally, its customers who have outages exceeding 30 to 40 minutes of the scheduled load-shedding timings can check the KE Live app for updates on their power statuses. Addressing reports of protests that KE has been receiving from across the metropolis, the spokesperson clarified that it is “a difficult time for the country in terms of the power supply situation. Global economic challenges are creating vulnerabilities in the fuel supply chain, which is also affecting K-Electric”. The spokesperson continued, “Unfortunately, at this time there is a power shortfall at the national level as well as a shortage of gas and RLNG in the country. We are grateful to the Minister of Energy, Imtiaz Sheikh, for his pledge to solicit additional power and gas to further reduce night-time load-shedding. In the meanwhile, and due to limited and finite energy sources, we have redistributed the loadshedding timings amongst the customers,” the spokesperson said.