Power breakdown: Energy minister gives restoration time

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Energy Khurram Dastgir Khan has asserted that the power supply across the country will be fully restored by 10pm after a major electricity breakdown hit Pakistan, ARY News reported on Monday.

In a televised address, the energy minister said that he said technical teams of the National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) and other experts were busy rectifying the fault, which occurred in the North-South system at 7:34 a.m. today.

He said electricity was being restored in parts of the country in phases and “hopefully it will be completed by tonight. The minister said the transmission system tripped due to unusual fluctuation in the voltage of the national grid.

Khurram Dastgir said that the entire transmission system was safe and there was no disruption in it despite the power breakdown. A power plant located in the Uch area was running and power supply to some areas of Balochistan and Southern Punjab has been restored, he added.

He further said partial power supply to Karachi has also been started through Thar Coal Power plants and he was personally supervising the restoration operation from National Power Control Centre (NPCC).

He said NDTC had been given the authority to switch on any power plant needed for meeting the electricity needs. The Prime Minister has also ordered an inquiry and a three-member committee has been set up to probe the incident, he said.

He said restoration of electricity was a challenge as power needs to switch on each power plant. However, he expressed the hope that they would overcome the crisis by using the best of their abilities.

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The country is facing a major power outage for over 9 hours while the government is so far failed to restore the electricity supply from the National Grid. The government is reportedly making attempts to increase power production to meet the capacity of 8,000 megawatts.

Sources told ARY News that 1,000 MWs of electricity will be added to the National Grid from Mangla Dam which will match the frequency after meeting the production capacity of 8,000 MWs.

READ: PM SHEHBAZ SHARIF TAKES NOTICE OF COUNTRYWIDE POWER BREAK DOWN

Sources added that the power supply to 117 feeders of Islamabad Electric Supply Company (IESCO) was not yet restored.