KARACHI: Power restored to most of the areas of Karachi after a night-long breakdown engulfing large swathes of the metropolis on Friday, Geo News reported.
This was the second major breakdown in the city, following the August 11 breakdown.
The power cut that hit the Dhabeji, Gharo, and Pipri power stations impacted the water supply to Karachi.
However, power did resume in the Lasbela district and Thatta and its surroundings in Sindh after a span of six hours. In Hyderabad, on the other hand, electricity resumed partially after eight hours in the dark.
While speaking to Geo News, a spokesperson for the K-Electric had said power supply had resumed in most of Karachi but a complete continuation will take "another 2-3 hours".
Rapid work was underway to resume citywide power supply, he explained, adding that electricity was back on in F.B. Area, PECHS, and Saddar and an operation to resume power in Garden East, Kharadar, and Punjab Chowrangi was ongoing.
"We're making efforts to resume complete power supply quickly," he said.
'Rollover effect on Karachi's electric supply'
Areas that experienced power outage included Defence, Saddar, North Karachi, Soldier Bazar, Gulistan-e-Jauhar, Pak Colony, PECHS, Lines Area, Mehmoodabad, Baloch Colony, and Jamshed Road, among many others.
Sources also informed Geo News that the city's Jinnah International Airport was also impacted by the suspension of electricity, with major portions of Jinnah Terminal and the rest of the airport facing pitch blackness. They added, however, that alternative power sources were being utilised for the sensitive areas.
On its official Twitter page, K-Electric, the metropolis' primary power supplier, said a "500 kV transmission line connecting KE to the National Grid has tripped".
"This has had a rollover effect on Karachi's electric supply due to which various parts of the city are experiencing an Outage. Restoration efforts are underway with some affected areas already back online.
The "power situation in the city is expected to improve significantly in the next 4 to 5 hours. We will continue to share updates," it added.
Earlier, a KE spokesperson had confirmed that the power supply to most of the megapolis was suspended due to the tripping of an extra high-tension (EHT) wire.
They had added that further details in this regard would be shared soon and requested consumers to cooperate.
78 grid stations shut down: HESCO chief
Earlier, Raham Ali Otho, the chief executive at Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (HESCO), had confirmed that various cities of Sindh were experiencing major power outage, owing to the fact that "all 78 grid stations of HESCO [were] shut down".
"There is a technical fault at 500kV station in Jamshoro," he stated, adding that there was a complete electric outage in "13 districts of Sindh", including Hyderabad, Digri, Tando Jam, Matiari, Tando Muhammad Khan, Nawabshah, Mirpur Khas, Umerkot, Sanghar, Badin, Matli, Golarchi, Talhar, Tando Bago, Nindo, Serani, and Khoski.
The National Transmission & Dispatch Company (NTDC) was working to determine the fault causing the power outage, Otho noted, adding that wind farms in Thatta and Jhimpir were also shut down.
Experts' analyses
Syed Tanzeem Hussain Naqvi, a former chairperson at the KE, said a dilapidated system was the reason behind the citywide power outage.
"The load on Karachi's power supplying system is increasing and no upgradation has been done to manage it," Naqvi explained.
There has been no renovation in the system for the past eight years, he noted.
On the other hand, experts said the NTDC system's tripping should have cause a 600MW power shortage, which was why the breakdown in majority of Karachi's areas did not make sense.
Shunt isolators in grid stations help avert tripping incidents, the experts explained, adding that they can curb tripping waves and resume power in an hour.
In the past as well, the experts added, power resumption had taken a long time as tripping crises were not averted due to the aforementioned reasons.
https://www.geo.tv/latest/207842-power-supply-resumes-after-major-breakdown-in-karachi
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