ISLAMABAD, Jan 23 (APP):The Ministry of Energy on Monday said that a major power breakdown was reported across the country due to variation of frequency of the national grid.
The system of frequency of the national grid went down at 7:34 am which resulted in a countrywide power breakdown. Restoration of the system was progressing rapidly, it further said.
Restoration work of grid stations has been started from Warsak and limited grid stations of Islamabad Electric Supply Company and Peshawar Electric Supply Company have been restored in an hour, it was further stated.
The power breakdown which hit major cities including Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Karachi, Peshawar, Lahore, Quetta and others due to a fault in transmission.
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“There are reports of multiple outages from different parts of the city. We are investigating the issue and will keep this space posted,” K-Electric spokesperson Imran Rana said.
The IESCO spokesperson said that its 117 gird stations were without electricity. No reason was intimated by the regional control centres so far for the power breakdown, he said. The IESCO administration was in continuous touch with the relevant quarters in that regard, he said.
According to Quetta Electric Supply Company (QESCO), the two transmission lines from Guddu to Quetta tripped. It added that 22 districts of Balochistan, including Quetta, were without power.
Meanwhile, taking to a private channel, Minister for Power Division Engineer Khurram Dastgir said that the breakdown was not “major”. “In winter, the demand for electricity reduces nationwide, hence, as an economic measure, we temporarily close down our power generation systems at night.
“However, when the systems were turned on in the morning today, frequency variation and voltage fluctuation was observed in the south of the country- somewhere between Dadu and Jamshoro because of which power generating units shut down one by one,” he said.
The minister said that the restoration of grid stations in Peshawar and Islamabad had begun. “I can assure you that power will be fully restored across the country within the next 12 hours,” he added.
Meanwhile, the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) has taken serious notice of the country-wide power breakdown.
The authority also directed the National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) to submit a detailed report on the electricity blackout.
Nepra also apprised that it had previously imposed fines on similar trippings, partial/full blackout(s), system collapse(s), and tower collapse(s) in 2021 and 2022 and has consistently issued directives and recommendations on mitigating such events as well.
