Massive power breakdown leaves Pakistan in darkness 

A major power breakdown plunged parts of the country into darkness late on Saturday night. 

The entire country suffered the blackout as the power generation, transmission and distribution system collapsed.

Lahore, Islamabad, Karachi, Quetta, Peshawar and other parts of the country have been witnessed the outages because of a major fault in the National Power Control Centre (NPCC) system.

Sources said that the breakdown occurred when the Tarbela and Mangla power plants tripped, apparently due to dense fog.

In Karachi, Lahore at least 80 per cent of the city into darkness. Other cities and towns in Sindh also reported complete power outage.

Federal Minister for Power, Petroleum & Natural Resources Omar Ayub Khan said that frequency in transmission system dropped from 50 to zero suddenly which led to power breakdown across the country. He said that the concerned staff were working to restore the power supply in the country. He said that the engineering teams were trying to restore power supply from Tarbela power plant. He said that he was supervising the restoration work. 

بجلی کے ترسیلی نظام میں فریکوینسی اچانک 50سے 0 پر آنے کی وجہ سے ملک میں بجلی کا بلیک آؤٹ ہے

فریکونسی گرنے کی وجہ جاننے کی کوشش کی جارہی رہی ہے

اس وقت تربیلا کو چلانے کی کوشش ہو رہی ہے جس سے ترتیب وار بجلی کا نظام بحال کیا جائے گا

عوام سے تحمل کی اپیل ہے

— Omar Ayub Khan (@OmarAyubKhan) January 9, 2021

Official sources said that electricity in Islamabad would be restored in the next three hours and the rest of Pakistan by 8am in the morning. 

Electricity in Islamabad will be restored in the next three hours and the rest of Pakistan by 8 a.m. in the morning.

- Official Sources

— Imran Ghazali | #DigitalStrategy (@ImranGhazaliPK) January 9, 2021

Special Assistant to Prime Minister of Pakistan on Political Communication Dr Shahbaz Gill said that Power Minister Umar Ayub and his team were working to fix the problem at the earliest. 

عمر ایوب وزیر برائے بجلی اور ان کی پوری ٹیم بجلی ٹرپ ہونے کے ایشو پر کام کر رہی ہے۔ میری ابھی ابھی ان سے بات ہوئی ہے انشاللہ جلد آپکو آپ ڈیٹ کرتے ہیں۔

— Dr. Shahbaz GiLL (@SHABAZGIL) January 9, 2021

Information Minister Shibli Faraz took to twitter and wrote, “Technical fault in NTDC system. System is being restored.”

Technical fault in NTDC system. System is being restored

— Senator Shibli Faraz (@shiblifaraz) January 9, 2021

An official of power division said that work started on restoring power supply. He said it would take hours to restore power supply in the country. 

A phase-wise restoration of power supply from Tarbela power plant started as supply restored to Warsak and Shahi Bagh areas in Peshawar.