Pakistan restores power after 'grid failure'

Islamabad: A day after Pakistan suffered a massive power outage, Minister for Energy Khurram Dastgir Tuesday said that electricity has been fully restored at all grid stations across the country. 

While addressing the media in Islamabad today, Khurram Dastgir Khan said power was gradually being restored after the country's 1112 grid stations stand were taken care of. 

“Electricity largely returned to mega cities overnight, but with localized and brief falls in connection continuing,” added minister.

He further added that major cities, including Karachi, Quetta and Lahore, remained deprived of power.

Khurram stated 48 to 72 hours are usually required to re-link power plants of about 9500 megawatts to the transmission system after any emergency shutdown. 

"Therefore it may take a few more hours to manage the load," he said adding that approximately 6,600 megawatts of coal and 3,500MW of nuclear plants would take an estimated 48 to 72 hours to restart. 

He said the coal power plants are also required 48 hours.

The federal minister said that efforts were underway by the National Transmission and Dispatch Company, Power Division and WAPDA the Power Division to restart these plants.

“Until these plants start running, there will be limited load shedding in the next 48 hours,” said the minister adding that the industrial sector will be excluded from localized power cuts.

Karachi, Pakistan's largest city and economic hub, and some rural areas are still waiting to be reconnected and will likely see electricity restored in the next three to four hours, said the Energy minister.

Khurram Dastgir said despite the extensive breakdown, there were some areas in the federal capital and Peshawar where electricity remained available all the time. Similarly, there was no disruption in power in the flood-hit areas of Sindh and Balochistan.

He added that an inquiry has been launched into the outage. 

The Minister for Energy said the exact reason of the technical challenge that was experienced in the North and South transmission line at 7.30 am yesterday has yet not been determined.

"Pakistan’s power system is a complex and delicate web, where problems can quickly cascade," said the federal minister, stressing that 20-year-old installed devices have been used. 

"Pakistan has enough installed power capacity and fuel to meet demand," he added. 

The units are temporarily switched off on winter nights to save fuel, he had told reporters earlier.

The outage started around 7:30 am (0230 GMT) on Monday, a failure linked to a cost-cutting measure as Pakistan grapples with an economic crisis.

Power had returned to most cities across Pakistan today, a day after a nationwide breakdown left the country of 220 million people without electricity.

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