Power Outage in Pakistan | The Reason, History and Impacts on Economy @MaTurEMiNds

The electricity has still not been fully restored across the country despite the passing of the government’s 10pm deadline, hampering businesses and the daily lives of more than 220 million people. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has ordered an inquiry into the outage, which began at around 7:30am and has so far lasted more than 16 hours during the peak winter season. The outage occurred on a winter's day when temperatures are forecast to fall to around 4 degrees Celsius (39°F) in Islamabad and 8 degrees Celsius (46°F) in Karachi. The outage — which Energy Minister Khurram Dastagir had said was due to a voltage surge — is the second major grid failure in three months, and adds to the blackouts that Pakistan's populace suffers on an almost-daily basis. Analysts and officials blame the power problems on an ageing electricity network, which like much of the national infrastructure, desperately needs an upgrade that the government says it can ill afford. As evening drew on and homes were without electricity in the dark, the energy minister wrote on Twitter that authorities had started restoring power across the country. Dastgir had told reporters earlier: "We have faced some hurdles but we will overcome these hurdles, and will restore the power." "Target is to restore power by 22:00 (10pm) local time but trying to restore much before that," the minister had told Reuters, but later in the press conference said that the complete restoration would be done by tonight, without specifying the time. Soon after the power breakdown was reported earlier in the day, Dastgir, while talking to Geo News, 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 power generating units were shut down one by one due to cascading impact. This is not a major crisis,” said the federal minister. 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. In a press conference later, he added that despite the unprecedented voltage fluctuations in the national grid, the transmission system is safe, which will help in the restoration of power. "Our teams — from across the country — have not reported any adverse effects of the breakdown on the national transmission system. This will help us when we restore power." Following the prolonged nationwide power breakdown, reports have also been received regarding mobile and internet services being affected in cities in different pockets. Telecom companies have run out of stored fuel to temporarily run their towers and ensure a smooth flow of services causing a delay in providing services to consumers. “Mobile network installations are being run on backup power since morning, which cannot work for a long time,” people in the telecom industry said. In a statement, the Pakistan Telecom Authority (PTA) directed the companies to ensure services by refuelling generators at the maximum number of affected sites. Meanwhile, the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) also informed users that they may face degradation in services due to the electricity outage. NetBlocks — a global internet monitor — confirmed that their network data showed a significant decline in internet access in Pakistan which was attributed to the power outage across the country. In a statement, Karachi Electric — the sole power provider of the metropolis — said the company's system’s protective mechanisms were able to prevent any damage to our infrastructure. "KE teams are active and directly supervising the restoration efforts across Karachi," the utility said, adding that its teams are also in contact with relevant authorities to reestablish the link between Karachi and the national grid. Progress across the country and KE is proceeding at a cautious pace, prioritising the stability of the network frequency. Strategic installations such as the airport, Karachi Port, and hospitals are being restored first. Partial restoration of some areas has, according to the KE, been achieved. KE said it expects that power supply to the majority of the residential and commercial areas to be restored over the next three to four hours. However, it said, complete restoration to the city and particularly industrial consumers is dependent on the provision of reliable supply from the national grid, which may take a few more hours. KE is making all efforts to ensure a stable supply to energise the economy at the earliest, it added.