On Monday, Pakistan’s Energy minister Khurram Dastgir said that “ technicians were working to restore a major national grid breakdown that left millions of people across the country without electricity all day,”
adding in more, “power would be restored by the evening.”
Within three months, this was the second major outage that raised questions about weak infrastructure. Pakistan, a country of 220 million people demanded to upgrade a geriatric power grid.
Pakistan has enough inaugurated power capabilities to meet the demand, but it lacks sufficient resources to run its oil and gas-powered plants. The energy sector is also heavily beholden whereas, power lines and new infrastured are not afforded to invest in.
At 7:30 am this breakdown happened in Pakistan, also comes as the Pakistan economy is out of control, with industrial growth slowing, inflation at decades-high levels, and foreign resources reducing.
On a Monday evening, Media was briefed by Khurram Dastgir the energy minister that “Authorities are working on restoring power before Monday ends.”
Khan said in a separate statement issued on Monday morning that “There is no major fault….. In winter the system is closed due to low demand at night and is switched on in the morning.”
The energy minister Khurram Dastgir further added to it that “ as part of an energy-saving move, electricity is turned off across Pakistan during low usage hours overnight to conserve fuel. Technicians were unable to boot the system all at once after daybreak.”
Directing to the two provinces in the country’s south Khurram dastgir added “ today morning when the system was switched on, a huge breakdown occurred due to a drop in frequency between Jamshoro and Dadu.”
Shehbaz Sharif the prime minister of Pakistan required an inquiry into the breakout and called for an ‘immediate report’ from the energy minister. The Prime minister said, “ why did a massive crisis of electricity arise? Those responsible should be identified…. The difficulties of the masses are intolerable.”
Imran Rana the spokesperson for the city’s sole power distributor, k electric stated that
“work is underway on restoring the power in Karachi. Power is being supplied on a priority basis to strategic installations like airports, hospitals, and Karachi port.”
The CEO of the Lahore Electric Supply (LESCO), supplies power to some of Pakistan’s most popular cities in Punjab province said, “ LESCO grid stations had tripped, “ depriving industrial, commercial and domestic consumers of electricity.”
A university student Chaudhry Nauman Arif told Arab News, “ suddenly I felt a jolt that shook the train. The train became slow and lights, heaters, and air conditioners turned off, passengers were stuck in the train for 40 minutes before finally being safely offloaded.
The highway police stated that “ if electricity is not restored until darkness, keeping in mind the law and order situation, kindly make sure your cars are locked properly to avoid any incident.”
