ISLAMABAD: A massive power outage across Pakistan on Monday affected most of the country’s 220 million people, including in major cities like Karachi and Lahore, but with communities in the dark, authorities reported that a restoration of electricity had begun.
Pakistan’s power system is a complex and delicate network, where problems can quickly escalate.
The latest outage was caused by a national grid outage around 7:30 a.m. (02:30 GMT), linked to a cost-cutting measure as the country’s economy struggles.
Khurram Dastgir, Minister of Energy Khan said in a video statement that the hope was to restore power across the country by Monday evening.
At night, he took to Twitter to assure Pakistanis that power was gradually returning.
“We have started to restore electricity throughout the country,” he posted.
The minister tweeted that power had returned to the center of the capital Islamabad and to Gujranwala, a town about 200 kilometers (125 miles) to the southeast.
Khan also retweeted a user who said there is now “light in Lahore”, Pakistan’s second most populous city with over 10 million people.
A frequency variation on the national network caused the cut, the generators being started early in the morning.
The units had been temporarily shut down at night to save fuel, Khan told media earlier.
Localized power outages are common in Pakistan, and hospitals, factories and government institutions are often powered by private generators. The machines, however, are beyond the means of most citizens and small businesses.
In parts of northern Pakistan, temperatures were expected to drop below zero overnight, with the supply of natural gas – the most common heating method – also unreliable due to load shedding.
The economy is already hampered by runaway inflation, a falling rupee and extremely low foreign exchange reserves, with the power cut putting additional pressure on small businesses.
In the garrison town of Rawalpindi, a household goods merchant Sheikh Muhammad Iftikhar71, said he was unable to demonstrate electronics to browsing customers.
“Customers never buy without testing first,” he said. “We’re all sitting around doing nothing.”
Schools mostly continued either in darkness or using battery-powered lighting.
A trader in the southern port city of Karachi, where temperatures are higher, told AFP he was worried his entire stock of dairy products would spoil without refrigeration.
Printer Khurrum Khan39, said orders were piling up due to the power outage.
The unreliability of power is “a permanent curse that our governments have failed to overcome”, he complained.
Karachi, with a population of over 15 million, and Lahore, both remained largely without power as night fell.
Mobile phone services were also interrupted following the outage, the Telecommunications Authority of Pakistan tweeted.
A similar outage in January 2021 affected the whole country, after an outage occurred in southern Pakistan, causing the national transmission system to trip.
Pakistan’s power system is a complex and delicate network, where problems can quickly escalate.
The latest outage was caused by a national grid outage around 7:30 a.m. (02:30 GMT), linked to a cost-cutting measure as the country’s economy struggles.
Khurram Dastgir, Minister of Energy Khan said in a video statement that the hope was to restore power across the country by Monday evening.
At night, he took to Twitter to assure Pakistanis that power was gradually returning.
“We have started to restore electricity throughout the country,” he posted.
The minister tweeted that power had returned to the center of the capital Islamabad and to Gujranwala, a town about 200 kilometers (125 miles) to the southeast.
Khan also retweeted a user who said there is now “light in Lahore”, Pakistan’s second most populous city with over 10 million people.
A frequency variation on the national network caused the cut, the generators being started early in the morning.
The units had been temporarily shut down at night to save fuel, Khan told media earlier.
Localized power outages are common in Pakistan, and hospitals, factories and government institutions are often powered by private generators. The machines, however, are beyond the means of most citizens and small businesses.
In parts of northern Pakistan, temperatures were expected to drop below zero overnight, with the supply of natural gas – the most common heating method – also unreliable due to load shedding.
The economy is already hampered by runaway inflation, a falling rupee and extremely low foreign exchange reserves, with the power cut putting additional pressure on small businesses.
In the garrison town of Rawalpindi, a household goods merchant Sheikh Muhammad Iftikhar71, said he was unable to demonstrate electronics to browsing customers.
“Customers never buy without testing first,” he said. “We’re all sitting around doing nothing.”
Schools mostly continued either in darkness or using battery-powered lighting.
A trader in the southern port city of Karachi, where temperatures are higher, told AFP he was worried his entire stock of dairy products would spoil without refrigeration.
Printer Khurrum Khan39, said orders were piling up due to the power outage.
The unreliability of power is “a permanent curse that our governments have failed to overcome”, he complained.
Karachi, with a population of over 15 million, and Lahore, both remained largely without power as night fell.
Mobile phone services were also interrupted following the outage, the Telecommunications Authority of Pakistan tweeted.
A similar outage in January 2021 affected the whole country, after an outage occurred in southern Pakistan, causing the national transmission system to trip.
