Country still feeling ‘heat’ of power breakdown

ISLAMABAD:

Even after almost a day, the country on Friday is still reeling from the effects of Thursday's massive power breakdown with several parts of the country still without electricity.

Besides the southern parts of the country, the supply is affected in Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa as well.

The power transmission system has not been restored to its full extent with the demand for electricity surging to 17,000 MW and the generation only standing at 9,000 MW.

The power shortfall in the country has hit 8,000 MW.

The National Power Control Centre has resorted to forced power outages.

The Lahore Electric Supply Company (Lesco), Multan Electric Power Company (Mepco), and Gujranwala Electric Power Company (Gepco) have started carrying out forced power cuts.

Similarly, the Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) and Tribal Areas Electricity Supply Company (Tesco) regions have been deprived of power for hours.

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Lesco is facing a shortfall of 1,000 MW with its demand reaching 3,000 MW and only 2,000 MW being supplied.

The region falling under Lesco has over 10 grids still shut and the residents are putting up with forced power outages lasting around six to seven hours.

The Power Division sources said it could take a further four to six hours for the system to be fully restored.

A day earlier, Sindh and some other parts of the country suffered a massive power breakdown that lasted for several hours in some areas because of a fault in the system of the National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC).

The country has faced breakdowns several times in the past and the recent one shows that the NTDC had failed to find permanent remedial measures to overcome these incidents in the future.

The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) has recently imposed a fine of Rs20 million on the NTDC because of breakdowns and collapsing of its towers.

Karachi, the economic hub of the country, also went off the grid because of the NTDC system collapse.

Power Minister Khurram Dastgir addressed a news conference following the massive outages in the country.

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The minister said the breakdown was caused by the loss of power on two lines.

This resulted in the shutting down of the Thar coal power plant and Karachi nuclear power plant.

He said that the government would check the "not typical” problem in the two lines.

The minister added that the fault had resulted in taking out 8,000 MW electricity from the system. However, he said 5,000 MW had been restored.

The minister warned the restoration procedure would take time, but promised that the nation’s power would be restored to normal by Thursday night.

He added that three teams were engaged to address the matter -- the reconnection, repair, and investigation.

The minister informed the media that the investigation team had been given four days to deliver a report on the cause of the breakdown. “Once this comes to light, the right measures will be taken," he added.