Late on Thursday, the Ministry of Energy confirmed that all countrywide power had been “fully restored,” adding that the issue with two 500kV lines in Karachi’s south had been fixed.
The ministry posted on its official Twitter account, “Electricity supply is being increased from alternative power plants, which will return to normal by Friday morning.”
According to Dawn, Energy Minister Khurram Dastgir had expressed his optimism that normal electrical service would be fully restored by tonight.
He reported power outages on Thursday morning in Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Quetta, Multan, and Faisalabad while speaking at a press conference.
“Karachi and Quetta are priority regions now,” he said. “Nearly 8,000 MW of power went offline at around 9 AM however, the government has restored 4,700 MW,” he announced. “Restarting of power plants will consume time therefore complete resolution of the problem will take a few more hours.”
He said that a thorough investigation had been ordered and a team had been formed for the purpose, citing the government’s worry regarding simultaneous faults in two power lines at the same time.
“We will take action after receiving the inquiry report,” the minister said. “Due to our efforts, northern part of the country remained unaffected from the breakdown.”
According to the Ministry of Energy, a “fault in the country’s southern transmission system” caused a significant power outage on Thursday that affected Sindh and Punjab.
In addition to Karachi, Hyderabad, Thatta, Jamshoro, Sujawal, Badin, Mirpurkhas, Umarkot, Sanghar, Nawabshah, Matiari, Tharparkar, and Larkana, electricity was also cut off in other parts of Sindh.
Additionally, there were power outages in a number of Punjabi cities, including Rajanpur and Rahim Yar Khan.
“Due to an accidental fault in the country’s southern transmission system, several southern power plants are tripping in stages, which is disrupting the transmission of electricity in the southern part of the country,” said the Ministry of Energy in a tweet post.
“The Ministry of Energy is diligently investigating the cause of the outage and the power system will be fully restored as soon as possible,” it added.
According to reports, a technical issue has caused the Guddu Thermal Power Station in Kashmore to stop producing electricity. Technical issues at the power plant prevent the 600MW and 747MW units from running.
The 500-KV system nationwide is not functioning, according to sources at National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC). They claimed that the causes are still being determined.
The southern port city’s many neighbourhoods, including Malir, Sarjani Town, and Saddar, experienced power outages. Since 10:00 am, there has been no electricity in these neighbourhoods.
Furthermore, there were power disruptions in places including Gulshan-e-Maymar, Federal B Area, Liaquatabad, and Super Highway.
Baldia, Orangi Town, North Nazimabad, and North Karachi are all without electricity. In addition to this, some locations, notably the SITE Industrial Area, lack electricity.
“There are reports of multiple outages from different parts of the city,” Imran Rana, Spokesperson, K-Electric, said in a tweet post.
“We are investigating the issue and will keep this space posted,” he added.
According to information provided by the Ministry of Energy, the KE’s spokesperson verified that the halt in energy supply was caused by a failure in the southern transmission system in an update released about 11:45am.
He said that efforts to restore the supply had begun, and it would take about five hours to finish the process.
