LAHORE/KARACHI/QUETTA/ISLAMABAD: Power Minister Khurram Dastgir on Monday said the government is hoping to restore power to the country by 10 pm as the country plunged into darkness for the second time in four months.
“The target is to restore power by 10 p.m. local time (10 a.m.) but efforts are being made to restore a lot before that,” the minister told JEE News, but later A press conference said that without giving a time frame, full restoration would be done by tonight. .
The nationwide power breakdown triggered by “frequency variation” in the national grid early in the morning left large parts of the country without power, including Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Peshawar and Quetta.
Speaking to JEE News soon after the power breakdown was reported, Dastgir said that generating units are temporarily shut down at night as an economic measure to save fuel costs.
“When the systems were turned on one by one at 7:30 am today, a change in frequency was reported between Jamshoro and Dadu in the southern part of the country.”
“The voltage was fluctuating and power generation units were shutting down one by one. It is not a major crisis,” the federal minister said.
ابتدائی اطلاعات کے مطابق آج صبح 7:34 پر نیشنل گرڈ کی سسٹم فریکوئنسی کم ہوئ جس سے بجلی کے نظام میں وسیع بریک ڈاؤن ہوا
— Ministry of Energy (@MoWP15) January 23, 2023
سسٹم کی بحالی پر کام تیزی سےجاری ہے
The minister said that his ministry has started restoring some grid stations in Tarbela and Warsak.
“Some grids of Peshawar Electric Supply Company (PESCO) and Islamabad Electric Supply Company (IESCO) have already been restored,” claimed the minister.
Later in a press conference, he added that the transmission system is safe despite the unusual voltage fluctuations in the national grid, which will help restore power.
“Our teams – from across the country – have not reported any adverse effects of the outage on the national transmission system. This will help us as we restore power.”
He further said that the power plant operating at Ouch is supplying energy to Sukkur, Nowshero Feroze, Larkana, Khairpur Nathan Shah and their surrounding areas.
Therefore, he said, using the same power plant, power has been restored in parts of Balochistan and southern Punjab, while the Thar Coal facility is supplying power to Karachi Electric to partially restore its operations. can do
Earlier, while talking about the breakdown in Karachi, the minister said that the issue is complicated in the port city as it has a complete power supply system.
“All the authorities are doing their level best to restore the system. We faced some difficulties in restoring the hydel power plants. As I said earlier the national transmission system is safe, so we need more It takes electricity to provide electricity.”
He added that the National Transmission and Dispatch Company has been “authorized to use any power plant for power restoration – no matter how expensive it is to operate”.
Notice of Prime Minister’s Committee, Nepra
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, taking strict notice of the power outage, has ordered the formation of a high-level three-member committee to investigate the causes of the breakdown.
The prime minister – who was angered by the impact of the breakdown – also sought a report from the energy minister, a statement from the prime minister’s office said.
The Prime Minister also directed the authorities to restore power supply immediately.
The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) also said in a statement that it had taken “serious notice” of the power outage and directed the NTDC to submit a “detailed report”.
The statement also said the regulator had previously imposed penalties for similar outages in 2021 and 2022. He also informed that Nepra has continuously issued instructions and recommendations to deal with such incidents in future.
Karachi Power Update
Meanwhile, K Electric spokesperson Imran Rana said that at around 7:34 am today, the National Grid experienced a frequency drop, affecting power supply to several cities in Pakistan.
KE teams are actively involved in efforts to restore Karachi after tripping in the national grid, KE spokesperson Imran Rana said in a statement, ensuring stability of the system.
“The first priority is towards strategic facilities like hospitals, airports, etc., and power supply will be gradually restored to the rest of the city,” the spokesperson added.
An ISCO spokesperson said that 117 of its grid stations are without power. Meanwhile, Pesco also confirmed outages in areas where it supplies electricity.
According to Quetta Electric Supply Company (KESCO), 22 districts of Balochistan, including Quetta, are deprived of electricity.
Previous breakdown
In October last year Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Quetta, Multan and Faisalabad faced power outage.
At that time, the power minister had said that around 8000 megawatts of electricity went offline.
At the time, Dastgir had said that the simultaneous failure of two power lines, which led to the breakdown, was of concern to the government at the time. He also announced that a thorough inquiry has been ordered and promised action.
Power Outage Timeline
The country’s generation and distribution network has experienced eight major power breakdowns over the past nine years.
In 2014 and 2017, faults at the Tarbela power station caused nationwide blackouts, while in 2015, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022 and 2023, fog, frequency variation and faults at the Guddu power plant were blamed for the faults. .
Each time the party in power announced a comprehensive inquiry and vowed to fix the problems, but despite several inquiries, nothing happened.
