The Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) has said that it is being forced to increase loadshedding hours in high loss residential and commercial areas from Saturday (today) due to an acute shortage of natural gas faced by it.

In view of the serious shortage of gas faced by the KESC, from March 26 onwards, the loadshedding hours in the high loss residential and commercial areas may be increased drastically, from four-and-a-half hours to about nine hours daily, said a KESC statement on Friday.

The KESC said that like its stated policy for the last 18 months or so, the power utility would try and maintain its commitment to supply non-stop power to all industrial zones of the city to keep the wheels of the economy moving.

Despite the binding gas constraints faced by the KESC, all the sensitive and strategic installations would also be exempted from loadshedding as has been the policy of the KESC.

In spite of the significant increase in the electricity demand with rising temperatures in the recent weeks, the KESC said it had been making all-out efforts to keep up with the power demand and to carry out only scheduled loadshedding. Since the middle of the current month, the power demand has consistently exceeded 2,200 megawatt (MW) mark, while the gas supply is still lagging far behind at only 150 MMCFD, said the KESC spokesman.