A major power breakdown — trigged by frequency variation in the national grid — took place across Pakistan on Monday, leaving large swathes of the country, including Islamabad, Karachi and Lahore, deprived of electricity.
According to the Ministry of Energy, the system of frequency of the national grid went down at 7:34am today resulting in a widespread breakdown in the system.
“System maintenance work is progressing rapidly,” it tweeted.
In an interview with Geo News, Energy Minister Khurram Dastgir said that the breakdown was not “major”.
“In winter, the demand for electricity reduces nationwide, hence, as an economic measure, we temporarily close down our power generation systems at night.
“However, when the systems were turned on in the morning today, frequency variation and voltage fluctuation was observed in the south of the country […] somewhere between Dadu and Jamshoro […] because of which power generating units shut down one by one,” he explained.
Dastagir went on to say that the restoration of grid stations in Peshawar and Islamabad had begun. “I can assure you that power will be fully restored across the country within the next 12 hours,” he added.
Talking about Karachi, the minister said: “We provide K-Electric about 1,000-1,100 megawatts routinely […] power in the city will be restored within a few hours.”
In October last year, Pakistan witnessed a 12-hour breakdown after a disturbance was reported in two 500kV lines in the south of Karachi. The electricity blackout took out approximately 8,000MW from the system.
