Citizens braved prolonged power load-shedding, coupled with frequent breakdowns, on Tuesday as the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation failed to meet the overall power demand despite the restoration of supply from a power generation unit of Bin Qasim Thermal Power Station. Sources in the power utility told Dawn that the Unit No 6 of Bin Qasim Thermal Power Station, which was shut down for repairs on Sunday morning when it developed a technical fault, came back into operation on Tuesday though it produced much below its original capacity of 170 megawatts. Besides, the power supply from the Karachi Nuclear Power Plant (Kannup) to the KESC, which was suspended on May 20, has not been restored so far. The power supply from Kannup was expected to be restored within the next couple of days, the sources added. However, the situation with regard to load-shedding was better than the past three days when the power utility resorted to load-shedding for eight to 12 hours a day. Facing a total shortfall of 200MW on Tuesday, the KESC resorted to load-shedding for three to four hours in residential and commercial localities on a rotation basis. At present, the sources said, the KESC was getting around 500MW from the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) which was insufficient to cater to the rising demand of power in the metropolis. Like the previous summer, Wapda should increase the supply to 700MW to help the utility meet the demand and supply gap, they added. Besides the routine load-shedding, several areas remained without electricity for hours due to numerous faults that had developed in underground cables or pole-mounted transformers. The slow response of the KESC staff in tracing and repairing of such faults compounded hardships of consumers. Residents of Federal B Area, North Karachi, Gulistan-i-Jauhar, Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Malir, Shah Faisal Colony, Nazimabad, North Nazimabad, Defence, Clifton, Garden, Lines Area, Lyari, New Karachi, PECHS, Orangi Town, Liaquatabad, Baldia Town and other areas faced hardships and mental agony due to the power breakdowns that continued intermittently till late in the evening. Residents of most areas said there was no one to attend their frantic calls and lodge their complaints. A resident of Jacob Lines said that KESC staff took several hours to switch on the circuit breaker of his area PMT that tripped due to overloading. System overloading was said to be one of the biggest reasons behind localized faults. Besides, there were several complaints about power fluctuation and low voltage that caused irreparable damage to electrical appliances. Angry consumers were of the view that the KESC authorities did nothing to improve the supply and address their grievances.