The massive blackout

As if an unending power crisis was not enough to disrupt public life, a massive electricity breakdown hit more than half of the country on Sunday night. All major cities, including the capital Islamabad, Karachi, Sukkur, Hyderabad, Multan, Lahore, Gujranwala, Rawalpindi, Quetta and Peshawar, plunged into darkness for several hours. Such accidents do happen in other countries as well.
In this case it was no accident, but a logical outcome of indifference on the part of the government and inability of those running the distribution and transmission system to do the right thing. According to media reports, the cause of the massive breakdown was a 4500 MW gap between generation and demand - something unusual in the winter months when the demand is at its lowest. It happened because at the time power plants having 4000 MW generation capacity were sitting idle due to fuel shortage. The reason for the shortage is not difficult to guess considering that the system has been operating way below its installed capacity for lack of sincere efforts on the part of the government to address the circular debt issue, which has been preventing independent power producers from keeping their plants fully functional.
The concerned authorities seemed to have been caught by surprise. They blamed the system's collapse on a technical fault. However, details suggest otherwise. The breakdown began when the Uch power plant tripped due to overload brought about by low generation, triggering a chain reaction in the entire system. After the Uch power plant tripped, Hub power plant stumbled, followed by Mangla and Tarbela powerhouses. Was such a wide-scale tripping unavoidable? No, say those familiar with technical aspects of the issue. It could have been averted had the concerned entities upgraded their transmission and distribution system. More to the point, the event shows necessary precautionary measures were not adopted. Putting a proper safety net in place would have prevented the cascading effect.
Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf is reported to have set up an inquiry committee to look into the causes of the power system's collapse. Such inquiries usually do not serve any productive purpose except to calm down public anger. The present government, especially Raja Sahib in his previous stint as the water and power minister, has earned much criticism and public resentment for exacerbation of the power crisis on its watch. It is an irony of sorts that such a colossal electricity failure should occur so close to the end of this government's term in office. The event, it is hoped, would serve as an instructive lesson for whosoever takes over the reigns of power next to do whatever it takes to ensure the problem never recurs.