Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar, Quetta, Islamabad and most cities across Pakistan go dark after ‘major fault’ develops in national grid
Most of Pakistan was left without power late on Saturday after the transmission line from the Guddu power plant tripped.
According to initial details, Guddu’s 220KW power line to Quetta tripped which affected the 500 kilowatt power line from the national grid and forced Bin Qasim and the Jamshoro thermal power stations to go offline.
News channels reported that a major fault had developed in the safety valves at the Muzaffargarh Thermal Power Station. National Transmission and Despatch Company officials said they were hoping to fix the problem and restore power supply in the next few hours.
The breakdown left many parts of Sindh, including Karachi without power. The technical fault also left Lahore, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Peshawar and other cities of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces and Azad Kashmir without electricity. At least 16 districts in Balochistan, including Quetta, Pishin, Khuzdar, Mastung, Kalat, Sibi and Bolan were also submerged in darkness.
K-Electric, which supplies 650 mega watts of power to Karachi, explained that a tripping of the National Transmission and Dispatch Company (NTDC) line had a cascading effect and de-synced their supply. Due to the power outage, the Dhabeji pumping station stopped functioning and supply of water to Karachi was interrupted.
Saturday’s power outage follows a similar outage last month where large parts of the country were left without power after a fault that emanated from the Guddu power plant.
According to Quetta Electric Supply Company (QESCO) officials, the transmission lines from Guddu to Quetta were tripped. They said that power supply to Quetta and other districts have been suspended as a result of the technical fault in the 220KV transmission line.
POWER BREAKDOWN EXPECTED:
It has already been reported that the country may experience prolonged power outages or eventual blackout as a result of acute shortage of furnace oil.
The shortage of furnace oil had also been revealed by the Water and Power Ministry in a report on handling of furnace oil shortage issues.
The report said that power production from Jamshoro power plant has been decreased to 170mw from 570mw.
Similarly, power generation from Muzaffargarh plant after a decrease of 700mw was 360mw only, while Faisalabad power plant has suspended power generation due to non-availability of furnace oil.
Also, power production from HUBCO and KAPCO after a decrease of 1300mw stood at 1051mw. Due to acute shortage of furnace oil, power shortfall has stood above 6700mw in the country.
According to the Power Ministry’s report, demand of electricity has surged to 14000mw, while the generation has reduced to only 7,000mw.
Refineries are unable to fulfil the demands of furnace oil, while a decision to purchase 12 cargoes of furnace oil has been facing a shortfall of Rs 30 billion.