The electricity supply to the Guddu Power Plant in district Kashmore, Sindh, has been fixed and is back on after it had stopped due to a fire in the plant’s 500-KV high transmission line caused by a technical fault.
Resultantly, the power supply to cities such as Guddu, Kashmore, Jacobabad, Shikarpur, Suhbatpur, and Dera Murad Jamali, which had lost electricity due to tripping of the transmission lines, has been restored.
Several towns and cities in three provinces of Pakistan, including Sindh, Punjab, and Balochistan, had been cut on late Saturday and Sunday night due to an explosion in the Guddu Thermal Power Plant’s switchyard. The blast was apparently caused by technical issues made worse by heavy fog in the area.
People reportedly heard and saw the blast from a distance. Firefighters arrived and got the fire under control within an hour. After that, technical teams started repair work right away to fix things and restore power immediately.
Cities affected
Technical faults triggered blast and fire at the Guddu Power Plant led to power outages in:
Punjab
- D.G. Khan
- Rajanpur
- Rahim Yar Khan
Sindh
- Kashmore Kandhkot
- Jacobabad
- Shikarpur
- Larkana
- Sukkur
Balochistan
- Jafarabad
- Nasirabad
- Usta Muhammad
- Sohbatpur
- Bolan
- Sibi
Power supply from Muzaffargarh was partly restored after around 12 hours, but most of the affected areas remained without electricity until Monday morning. Concerned authorities claimed that technical teams have been working on repairs since the fire brigade teams extinguished the fire.
Dense fog caused delay in power restoration
Power restoration was delayed mostly due to early onset of fog in the evening, sources had told Dawn.
A National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) spokesman told media that dense fog led to the tripping of 500 kV and 220 kV transmission lines near Guddu. One pole of a 500 kV circuit breaker was damaged and isolated from the system for safety. The switchyard had been re-energised, and the damaged part was replaced urgently, he said.