Power outages and load shutdowns are more or less the order of the day. However, the current disintegration is another cause for concern given the country's precarious economic situation. Pakistan experienced a massive power outage early Monday due to a fault in its national power grid. All the country's major cities, including Karachi, Islamabad, Lahore and Peshawar, experienced power outages, the power ministry confirmed.
The ministry said in a statement that the network "experienced a loss of frequency that caused a major disruption" around 07:30 local time, and that work was underway to restore the system.
In an interview, Energy Minister Khurram Dastagir explained what happened. "During the winter, demand for electricity decreases nationally, so as an economy measure we temporarily shut down our power systems overnight." But when the plants were restarted on the morning of January 23, "frequency fluctuations and voltage fluctuations" were discovered in southern Pakistan, "somewhere between Dad u and Jamshoro," he said. As a result, this led to "power generation units shutting down one by one".
What is frequency?
When you turn on an appliance, such as a kettle or laptop charger, it is powered by alternating current. This means that the electricity alternates between positive and negative voltage. This back-and-forth motion, or "oscillation," is called electrical frequency.
Mains frequency, measured in Hertz (Hz), is a technical term that indicates how many times per second the alternating cycle occurs. Currently, 50 Hz is the most common frequency used in most of the world's power systems, including Pakistan.
Since the equipment in your home, factory or office is designed to run at a tight tolerance of 50 Hz, maintaining the frequency of our power supply is critical. This is why everyone turns off their appliances when there is a fluctuation in the voltage or frequency of the electricity. Failure to do so may result in damage to equipment and appliances.
The problem is that the frequency can be difficult to control; if the exact amount of electricity needed does not match the production, the frequency of electricity in the grid can be affected.
For example, if there is more demand for electricity than supply, the frequency will decrease. When there is an excess supply, the frequency increases. To make matters even more complicated, the margin of error is extremely narrow.
What happens when the frequency drops?
Speaking to Profit, sources from the energy division explained that "according to initial findings, the problem occurred around 07:34 due to a disturbance in the frequency of the national grid, which caused a major outage."
Sources further clarified that the frequency has been reduced due to a fault in the G U DD u Quetta transmission line, while other reasons and issues behind the fault are being investigated.
Frequency decreases if we supply too little to meet demand. To prevent power outages, an automatic load disconnection strategy is activated when they occur. This is because if the frequency drops too low, the power plants are switched off one by one until the grid goes down completely.
This seems to have happened in a recent power outage. Demand was higher than grid generation, leading to a ripple effect, causing power plants to shut down and disconnect from the grid to save expensive electricity generation equipment.
At the same time, some sources claimed on the basis of anonymity that the problem arose when the government tried to increase the contribution of thermal energy to the grid, as electricity generation was falling.
What does the government do
There are currently power outages in all provinces. Areas including Karachi, Lahore, Faisalabad, To Ba T EK Singh, Sargodha, Shore KO t, Per Ma Hal, Mu k ran, DG Khan are facing power cut.
To summarize, the entire provinces of Sindh and Balochistan have no power or intermittent power. Areas in south Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are also experiencing power outages.
Currently, the national regulator is trying to restore uninterrupted power to consumers. According to a statement by the National Electricity Regulatory Authority (NE PRA), "[Italy] has taken serious note of the nationwide power outage and has directed the National Transmission and Dispatch Company (NTDC) to submit a detailed report in this regard."
Furthermore, in its statement, the regulator ensured that the outage was not its fault as "[Previously] it imposed fines for similar shutdown, partial/total blackout, system collapse, tower collapse in 2021 and 2022 and consistently issues guidelines and recommendations for mitigation as well such events."
Additionally, the Power Division issued a statement that "power restoration work has commenced and is currently in full swing as several IE SCO and PE SCO substations are being gradually restored to avoid further losses".
Although the power minister claimed that power would be restored within 24 hours, sources said this was unlikely given the scale of the problem, adding that it could take up to 48 hours to ensure uninterrupted power supply to all areas.
Speaking to Profit, the source also said that the government's efforts to restore electricity supply are facing unprecedented problems that are further worsening the situation.
According to a tweet from Dastagir, "power is partially restored in Islamabad, Peshawar, Quetta, Multan and Sukkur distribution companies."
Although work is underway to restore the national grid, the exact reason for the failure is still unclear. Further statements and reports are expected to clarify this issue and potentially prevent it from occurring in the future.
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