Restoration efforts under way after major power breakdown plunges country into darkness

 

ISLAMABAD, JAN 10: Hours after a major power breakdown plunged the entire country into darkness, the ministry of energy said that efforts were under way to restore electricity through the national grid.

The blackout was reported a little before midnight by citizens on social media from across the country, including major urban centres such as Karachi, Islamabad, Lahore and Multan, as well as smaller towns and cities.

The Ministry of Energy spokesperson, tweeting from the ministry's official Twitter handle, said that according to initial reports, the Guddu power plant developed a fault at 11:41pm on Saturday night.

“The fault caused the country’s high transmission lines to trip, which in turn caused the system frequency to drop from 50 to 0 in less than a second.

The drop in frequency caused power plants to shut down.”

Some time later, the energy minister tweeted that power supply was being restored to cities in phases, starting with Islamabad.

According to Ayub, the power breakdown was caused after the frequency in the national power distribution system suddenly fell from 50 to zero.

Ayub said all technical teams had reached their respective stations, adding that he was personally supervising the restoration work as the federal power minister.

He said citizens would be kept updated on the restoration efforts periodically.

Restoration efforts

By late morning, power had been restored to some areas of major cities such as Lahore, Islamabad and Karachi, authorities announced on Twitter.

"132kv Grids Around Lahore Energized," Ayub tweeted just before 8am.

The K-Electric, which is the sole power distributor in Karachi, also said that power was being restored in phases to the port city.

Engineering teams are making "full efforts" to restore electricity supply, the utility service provider said on Twitter.

There were no immediate reports of disruption at hospitals, which can often rely on back-up generators.

AFP quoted a water and power ministry spokesman as saying that power had been restored to some parts of the country but many areas in Lahore and Karachi were still waiting.

He added that an investigation has been launched to probe the cause of the blackout.

Netblocks, which monitors internet outages, said internet connectivity in the country “collapsed” as a result of the blackout.

Connectivity was at “62 percent of ordinary levels,” it said in a tweet.

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COURTESY DAWN NEWS

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