After massive blackout, power supply being restored gradually in Pakistan

Several major cities, including national capital Islamabad, witnessed a major power outage late Saturday night.

Pakistani authorities on Sunday started restoring power supply in several cities in the country, including capital Islamabad, after a major outage took place late Saturday night, leading to a massive blackout in several cities and towns. The outage, which was also reported in cities like Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Multan etc. was attributed by the government to the tripping of the National Transmission Despatch Company’s lines.

Rawalpindi : People are silhouetted on vehicles headlights on a dark street during widespread power outages in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, Sunday, Jan. 10, 2021. AP/PTI(AP01_10_2021_000019B) (AP)

Federal minister for power, Omar Ayub Khan, on Sunday listed out several power grids in and around the city of Lahore that, he said, had been energised. He, however, added that it will still take some time before normal supply is restored.

Earlier, after the outage, Khan had said the frequency in the power distribution system suddenly dipped from 50 to zero, leading to the blackout. The energy ministry, meanwhile, said as per initial reports, there was a fault in the Guddu power plant in Sindh province at 11:41 pm on Saturday, adding that the fault tripped the high transmission lines, which further resulted in the system frequency going from 50 to zero in less than a second, causing power plants to shut down.

While Pakistan suffered this major blackout, neighbouring India, too, has had severe outages of its own, including in its financial capital of Mumbai in October 2020. The outage, which lasted for several hours, was attributed by the local administration to a technical failure in one of the power supply circuits at a supply station in the nearby city of Thane.

In July 2012, a two-day nationwide blackout, among the largest in the world, took place in India.