Minister says technical fault led to a major power breakdown in Pakistan
The power supply has been restored in most parts of the country hours after a sudden massive breakdown that left Pakistan in utter darkness, sending waves of panic.
Electricity has been restored in most of Islamabad, Rawalpindi and half of Lahore and Karachi, and will be soon fully revived across the country, Energy Minister Omar Ayub said on Sunday morning.
What happened?
Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, Energy Minister Ayub said that investigations were ongoing to determine the exact cause of the breakdown.
The Guddu power plant developed a fault at 11:41 pm on Saturday that led to a complete blackout as the whole country plunged into darkness. The nationwide outage was caused after the frequency in the national power distribution system suddenly plummeted from 50 to zero, the ministry of water and power said. In technical terms, it is described as “the cascading effect” triggering a ripple effect, tripping and shutting down the system.
Investigation ordered
The government has launched an official inquiry to probe the massive power breakdown that reportedly occurred due to a “technical fault”.
The sudden collapse of the system fuelled speculation about a cyberattack on the national grid system just as in the case of the 2015 Ukraine cyberattack on the national grid system. However, the officials have urged people not to panic and spread misinformation.
Pakistan witnessed frequent power outages due to chronic problems with its transmission system, however, the January 10 power failure is one the biggest in its history as it affected nearly whole country.
[…] January 10, Pakistan experienced one of the worst power breakdowns that plunged most of the country into darkness. But during the chaotic few hours, Pakistanis turned […]