Blackout was a result of Guddu power plant's mismanagement: report

Three members of Guddu power plant suspended as report pins blame on them for blackout on December 12

ISLAMABAD: After large swathes of the country were in the dark for six hours following a massive breakdown at the national power grid on December 12, the Ministry of Water and Power on Sunday submitted a report of the breakdown to the premier leading to the suspension of three members of Guddu power plant.

As per the investigation report of the Ministry of Water and Power, the power outage was due to the negligence and lack of coordination on the part of Guddu power plant management.

“The 220 to 500 KV step-up grid station at Guddu was overloaded and resulted in the tripping of the Northern transmission system,” the report stated.

The report resulted in action against Guddu Genco CEO Rukhsar Qureshi, resident engineer Maula Buksh and senior shift engineer Mohammad Momin, who have been suspended from their posts.

The breakdown resulted in power outages in districts of Peshawar, Mardan, Sawabi, Azad Jammu Kashmir, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Jehlum, Attock, Chakwal, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Lahore and Multan.