A countrywide power breakdown was triggered after the frequency of the national grid decreased early on Monday morning, the Ministry of Energy said.
“According to initial reports, the system frequency of the National Grid decreased at 7:34 this morning, which resulted in a widespread breakdown in the power system,” tweeted the ministry.
Power Minister Khurrum Dastagir said that the power generation units are temporarily shut down in winter at night as an economic measure to save fuel costs.
“When the systems were turned on at 7:30am this morning one by one, frequency variation was reported in the southern part of the country between Jamshoro and Dadu. There was a fluctuation in voltage and the systems were shut down one by one. This is not a major crisis,” said Dastagir.
The minister said that his ministry has started restoring some grid stations in Tarbela and Warsak.
“Peshawar Electric Supply Company (PESCO) and some grids of Islamabad Electric Supply Company (IESCO) have already been restored,” claimed the minister.
Talking about the breakdown in Karachi, the minister said that the matter in the port city is complicated as it has a complete electric supply system.
Meanwhile, a power outage was also reported in multiple areas of Karachi.
K-Electric spokesperson did not share the reason for the outage.
The IESCO spokesperson said that its 117 gird stations were without electricity.
Meanwhile, PESCO also confirmed outage in areas where it supplies electricity.
This is the second time within three months that a country was hit by a major power breakdown, Geo news reports.
In October of last year, Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Quetta, Multan, and Faisalabad were hit by power outage.
