Ahmed Mukhtar Naqshbandi
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Minister for Energy Khurram Dastgir on Monday hoped that electricity across the country would be completely restored by 10 pm today after a major power breakdown — due to “frequency variation” in the country’s national grid — hit Pakistan.
The national grid should be fully functioning by 10 pm, Dastgir told Reuters, adding: “We are trying our utmost to achieve restoration before that.”
Addressing a news conference in Islamabad, the minister said that there had been a widespread power breakdown across the country, adding that officials were working to restore the electricity supply.
“Today at 7:34 am, there was unusual voltage and frequency fluctuation in the North-South transmission corridor because of which the national grid’s system frequency was affected and a widespread breakdown was caused.”
Major power supply breakdown
He said that the country’s transmission system had not been affected but explained that electricity was required to get power plants and dams up and running.
Talking about the steps taken to address the outage, he said that there was a power plant in Uch that was currently operational. He said that power generated from the plant, which was providing electricity to several areas in Sindh, was also being diverted to Balochistan and parts of Punjab.
He further said that electricity from the Thar coal power project was partially being provided to K-Electric which was working on restoring operations.
He assured the nation that he was personally overseeing the matter at the National Power Control Centre (NPCC) and that the officials concerned were working hard to restore power. He expressed the hope that power would be restored across the country by night time.
The minister said that the National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) had been directed, on the orders of the prime minister, to get all power plants up and running even if they were dependent on expensive furnace oil. He further said a three-member team had been formed by the premier to probe the incident.
Separately, in a tweet, the minister said that electricity had been partially restored in distribution companies of Islamabad, Peshawar, Quetta, Sukkur, and Multan.
According to the Ministry of Energy, the national grid’s system of frequency went down at 7:34am today resulting in a widespread breakdown in the system.
