ISLAMABAD: After a massive blackout on Monday, power was restored in Pakistan intermittently on Tuesday. Today, at 5:15 am, the system was completely restored across the country, Energy Minister Khurram Dastgir said. All 1,112 grid stations restored within 24 hours,” Khurram Dastgir Khan told reporters.
In response to the power outage that continues in major cities like, Karachi, Quetta, and Lahore, Khan in a tweet wrote- “Around 6,600 MW coal and 3,500 MW nuclear plants are estimated to take 48 to 72 hours to restart. Till the operation of these plants, there will be limited load management except for industrial users.”
Pakistan’s national grid collapsed early on Monday morning, affecting offices, businesses, hospitals and schools in the country of 220 million people. It was the second major outage in Pakistan in four months and the first countrywide blackout since January 2021. The last breakdown in October 2022 took out about 8,000 megawatts from the national grid, and it took more than 12 hours to restore it.
Khan said the authorities have not been able to find the exact reason for the breakdown, adding that a three-member committee has been constituted to investigate the latest outage.
“We need to probe if there was an external interference like an internet attack, although that’s less likely,” he said.
He also dismissed rumors that the country did not have enough fuel to run the power plants. “We are considerate of the electricity bills people have to pay and try not to unnecessarily use power plants that require a lot of energy,” he said.