Pakistan’s energy minister says a major technical failure in the country’s power generation and distribution system caused a massive power outage that toppled the country overnight.
ISLAMABAD – A major technical failure in Pakistan’s power generation and distribution system caused a massive power outage that plunged the country into darkness overnight, the energy minister said.
Hours after Saturday’s fall, Energy Minister Omar Ayub said on Twitter that power was being restored in phases, starting with Islamabad. He said Sunday later that power had been restored in much of the country.
The blackouts were initially reported on social media by residents of major urban centers, including Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad and Multan. The minister and his spokesman took to Twitter to update the country.
Ayub urged people to be patient. He said the cause of the power outage was being investigated and work was underway to fire the main power plant in Tarbela, Pakistan, in the northwest, which would lead to a restoration of energy in the rest. of the country in phases.
Ayub told a news conference on Sunday that the Guddu power plant in southern Sindh province developed a fault at 11:41 p.m., which caused other power plants to shut down in a matter of seconds.
Zafar Yab, a spokesman for the Ministry of Energy, later said that the Tarbela and Warsak plants, both in the northwest of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, had been back in line and that power was being restored to the system. transmission.
Yab said, however, the restoration of power in all areas of the country would take a while.
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Associated Press writer Asim Tanveer in Multan, Pakistan, contributed to this report.
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