Power ‘fully restored’ across Pakistan after massive outage: energy ministry

The Ministry of Energy announced late Thursday that power was “fully restored” across the country, adding that the disturbance in two 500kv lines in the south of Karachi was resolved.

“Electricity supply is being increased from alternative power plants, which will return to normal by Friday morning,” the ministry shared on its official Twitter handle.

Earlier, Energy Minister Khurram Dastgir said that he was hopeful that electricity would be fully restored to normalcy by tonight.

Addressing a press conference, he stated that Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Quetta, Multan, and Faisalabad were hit by power outage on Thursday morning.

“Karachi and Quetta are priority regions now,” he said. “Nearly 8,000 MW of power went offline at around 9AM however, the government has restored 4,700 MW,” he announced. “Restarting of power plants will consume time therefore complete resolution of the problem will take a few more hours.”

Citing that simultaneous faults in two power lines at the same time was concerning for the government, he added that an in-depth inquiry had been ordered and a team had been constituted for the purpose.

“We will take action after receiving the inquiry report,” the minister said. “Due to our efforts, northern part of the country remained unaffected from the breakdown.”

Massive power breakdown hits Sindh, Punjab

A massive power breakdown hit Sindh and Punjab on Thursday, after a "fault in the country's southern transmission system", said the Ministry of Energy.

Electricity supply was suspended in various areas of Sindh, including Karachi, Hyderabad, Thatta, Jamshoro, Sujawal, Badin, Mirpurkhas, Umarkot, Sanghar, Nawabshah, Matiari, Tharparkar and Larkana.

Power supply was also disrupted in various cities of Punjab including Rajanpur, Rahim Yar Khan.

“Due to an accidental fault in the country's southern transmission system, several southern power plants are tripping in stages, which is disrupting the transmission of electricity in the southern part of the country,” said the Ministry of Energy in a tweet post.

“The Ministry of Energy is diligently investigating the cause of the outage and the power system will be fully restored as soon as possible,” it added.

As per reports, generation from Guddu Thermal Power Station in Kashmore has halted due to technical failure. The 600MW and 747MW units at the power plant are not operating due to technical faults.

Meanwhile, sources at National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) informed that the 500-KV system across the country is not working. The reasons are still being ascertained, they said.

Power outage in Karachi

Power outages affected different areas of the southern port city, including Malir, Sarjani Town, Saddar. These areas were without electricity since 10:00am.

Meanwhile, areas including Gulshan-e-Maymar, Federal B Area, Liaquatabad, and Super Highway also suffered power outages.

North Karachi, North Nazimabad, Orangi Town, and Baldia have also been deprived of electricity. Apart from this, electricity is cut-off in several areas including the SITE Industrial Area.

K-Electric says power supply restored to 95% feeders in Karachi

“There are reports of multiple outages from different parts of the city,” Imran Rana, Spokesperson, K-Electric, said in a tweet post.

“We are investigating the issue and will keep this space posted,” he added.

In an update posted around 11:45am, the KE's spokesperson confirmed that the suspension in electricity supply was due to a fault in the southern transmission system, as per the information provided by Ministry of Energy.

He added that work had been initiated to restore the supply and the complete restoration would take around five hours.