The real cost of KE loadshedding for Karachi’s Industrial Workers

Описание: The Knowledge Forum presents “Left in the Dark”, a video series highlighting the energy poverty created by fossil fuel-based electricity.

It also highlights the impact of the extensive and prolonged load shedding experienced by K-Electric’s consumers in Karachi, a city with a predominantly working-class population.

Most low-income communities reside in informal housing settlements, often lacking access to basic utility services. KE is the sole supplier of electricity to Karachi's 3.4 million consumers. A large part of the city experiences prolonged load shedding, which can last over 12-15 hours a day; in some cases, it increases to 18 hours a day.

The continuous rise in electricity prices, mainly due to reliance on fossil fuel-based generation, is one of the significant reasons behind outages. The majority of citizens in Karachi struggle to afford electricity, whereas KE conducts extended electricity load shedding to force people to pay bills.
The city's ordinary citizens are deeply distressed, facing economic hardship and crises that impact their health and well-being. So they cannot turn to distributed generation, which is expensive and space-intensive.

Affordable energy can be realised if KE switches to renewable power generation. Currently, only 3% of KE’s power generation is composed of renewables.

A green grid through renewable energy generation is the sustainable solution we urgently need to ensure equity and dignity for the citizens of Karachi.