Following a major breakdown that affected large parts of the country, Energy Minister Khurram Dastagir Khan assured the nation that the electricity transmission system will be “completely restored” between Maghrib and Isha. “We will restore the system between Maghrib and Isha,” said the minister in a press conference. He added that an inquiry team formed to investigate the matter will submit its report within five days. The minister told reporters that due to the breakdown a shortfall of 8,000 megwatts emerged, adding that at least 4,700 megawatts have been restored. “Faisalabad and Multan regions have been restored completely,” he said, adding that Sukkur Electric Supply Company (SEPCO) has been partially restored. Khan said that it will take a few hours to restore the plants that have tripped and is hopeful that plants providing electricity to Karachi will also be restored.

“Electricity needs to be restored in Quetta and Karachi,” said Khan adding that the tripping that triggered the breakdown started from the port city and spread to the other parts of the country. Earlier today, the Energy Ministry had said that southern parts of the country, mainly Sindh, Punjab and Balochistan, were left without power after a fault was detected in the national grid’s southern transmission system. “Due to an accidental fault in the country’s southern transmission system, multiple southern power plants are tripping which is affecting the transmission of electricity in the southern part of the country,” tweeted the ministry. The ministry shared that it was working to detect the fault and restoring the electricity in the southern part country at the earliest.

The KE officials appeared before the Sindh High Court (SHC) after the court issued the arrest warrants for the distributor company chief executive officer (CEO). The officials informed the court that the KE wasnt responsible for the power outage. The entire country power system is down, they said. Earlier, SHC Justice Salahuddin Panhwar issued the arrest warrants for the KE CEO, directing the officials to implement the arrest orders within an hour. He expressed annoyance over the suspension of the power supply since 9:30am, as city courts and the accountability courts within Karachi were also left without power following the breakdown. He asked how the court could hold proceedings with no electricity. K-Electric spokesperson Imran Rana has confirmed that multiple areas of Karachi were out of electricity.

He said that the process for restoration of the power supply has started. However, he said that complete restoration may take up to five hours. “There are reports of multiple outages from different parts of the city. We are investigating the issue and will keep this space posted,” he wrote in the initial tweet after the power breakdown. The tweet was also retweeted by the utility provider. The Sindh High Court, city and accountability courts located in Karachi were left without power following the breakdown. Other districts of Sindh that were without power were Hyderabad, Thatta, Jamshoro, Sujawal, Badin, Tando Muhammad Khan, Tando Allah Yar; Mirpurkhas, Umarkot, Sanghar, Nawabshah, Matiari, Tharparkar, Larkana.

Meanwhile Quetta Electric Supply Company (QESCO) has stated that at least 28 districts of Balochistan were left without power due to the fault. He added at least three electricity units providing 220 kvs of power were affected due to the fault. On the other hand, Lahore Electric Supply Company (LESCO) spokesperson Multan and South Punjab were affected by the power breakdown. The spokesperson shared that the fault had caused temporary pressure on the LESCO system. He added that a fault in the NTDC grid had shut down two grids and 20 feeders, clarifying that they have restored them via load management. On the other hand, Multan Electric Power Company (MEPCO) shared that at least 500 kvs of electricity is not coming into its system due to the fault. The utility company shared that Muzaffargarh, Bhawalnagar, DG Khan, Bhawalpur, Behari and Khanewal were without electricity.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan-INP