Ahmed Mukhtar Naqshbandi
ISLAMABAD: The electricity supply is being restored in a phased manner in Pakistan after a countrywide power breakdown at 07:34 am Monday was caused by an abrupt drop in the frequency system of the national grid.
The day-long power outages disrupted the routine public life across the country, with fluctuating Internet services and electricity generators fully exhausted by evening due to constant burden and functioning.
The electricity will hopefully be completely restored by tonight as the National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) technical teams, and other experts are busy rectifying the fault, which occurred in the North-South system earlier in the morning.
Taking strong notice of the major electricity breakdown, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif set up a high-level committee to find out the overall reason, besides an urgent report from Federal Minister for Energy Engineer Khurram Dastagir on the matter.
He emphasized finding the pitfalls that led to the power breakdown, clearly fixing the responsibility.
Major electricity breakdown across Pakistan
PM Shehbaz Sharif ordered swift measures to restore electricity, saying inconvenience to the general public would not be tolerated.
Minister for Energy (Power Division) Engineer Khurram Dastgir, while addressing a televised news conference, said the transmission system had tripped due to unusual fluctuation in the voltage of the national grid.
However, he added, the electricity was being restored in different parts of the country in a gradual manner, and “hopefully, it will be fixed completely tonight.”
Khurram Dastgir said the entire transmission system was safe despite the massive power supply breakdown. A power plant in the Uch area was functional, and power supply to some areas of Balochistan and Southern Punjab had already been restored.
The minister, who was supervising the restoration operation from the National Power Control Centre (NPCC), said partial power supply to Karachi had also been started through Thar Coal Power plants.
He said the NTDC had been given the instructions to freely switch on any power plant if needed to meet the electricity demand.
Meanwhile, an Islamabad Electric Supply Company (IESCO) spokesperson said the technical experts were busy with the complete restoration of power in the region, and they had so far managed to restore almost 50 percent of the tripped grid stations.
“The feeders are being restored in a phased manner to protect the system from overloading,” he said in a press statement.
The IESCO spokesperson advised the consumers to avoid excessive electricity use once it was fully restored for uninterrupted transmission.
The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) also took serious notice of the countrywide power breakdown, directing the NTDC to submit a detailed report.
The Authority had previously imposed fines on similar tripping/outages, partial/complete blackout(s), system collapse(s), and tower collapse(s) in the years 2021 and 2022 and regularly issued directives/recommendations on averting such events as well.
Sharing the progress in the restoration of electricity, Energy Minister Khurram Dastgir, on his Twitter handle, posted that the restoration of power supply had started in Balochistan as the “Quetta city electricity is largely restored.”
He said the electricity supply was gradually improving in the Islamabad region, including Jhelum and Karachi.
