Tripping of transmission lines, power plants plunge parts of Sindh, Balochistan into darkness

As Bin Qasim was being brought back online, Hub and Jamshoro power plants along with \500KV NTDC power lines tripped

KARACHI: What started as a tripping of a 220 kilovolt (KV) power line from Bin Qasim power plants in Karachi, cascaded into tripping of two other major power plants in the region to plunge parts of Sindh and Balochistan into darkness, Express News reported.

A broken conductor on a 220 KV power line transmitting electricity from the Bin Qasim power plants casued the line, and then subsequently the plants to trip on Tuesday evening. The fault caused the 560MW power plants to be shut down, as repairs were made to the transmission line.

The tripping and the plant shutdown plunged large parts of Karachi into darkness.

Outage prolonged due to National Grid tripping. Teams making alternate arrangements to normalise the situation. pic.twitter.com/WK07jL82Cm

— KE (@KElectricPk) July 7, 2015

Blackout in Karachi, Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas, Badin, Nawabshah & parts of Balochistan due to tripping of Hubco/Jamshoro. @KElectricPk

— Usama Qureshi (@UsamaQureshy) July 7, 2015

After working on repairs for over seven hours, the transmission and the plants were being brought back online when it caused a cascading effect in the system, causing the HubCo power plant, the 660MW Jamshoro power plant and the 500KV National Transmission and Distribution Company (NTDC) line from the national grid, to trip.

This plunged large parts of Sindh and Balochistan into darkness, with reports that the cascading effect had also affected grids as far away as Peshawar.

In Sindh, the second tripping caused blackouts in Karachi, Hyderabad, Thatta, Kotri, Mirpurkhas, Badin and Nawabshah. Hub, Lasbela among some other areas in Balochistan also suffered blackouts. K-Electric spokesperson said that their teams were working to restore power, adding that alternative arrangements for power were also being made.

Earlier,  large parts of Karachi plunged into darkness on Tuesday evening after the main power line from Bin Qasim Power plant tripped.

A spokesperson for K-Electric power supply company explained that a conductor on the main 220 KV transmission line broke, causing the extra high tension line to trip. Its ripple effect caused Bin Qasim’s power plants to trip and shut down, creating a power deficit of 560 megawatts (MW).

The official added that their engineers were analysing the situation to start repairs, but they could not provide a timeline for when power would be restored.

Talking to The Express Tribune, the K-electric spokesperson said that such a trip was unusual.

The plant's shut down caused a power break down in many parts of city including Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Gulistan-e-Jauhar, Malir, Korangi, Landhi, Defence, Saddar, FB Area, Tariq road.

Till the filing of this report, the power supply could not be restored in the affected areas.

For the past few weeks, the power infrastructure of Karachi has been under stress due to rising demand for power, forcing K-electric to operate at full load. The k-electric was already stretched due to the growing gap between consumption and supply.