Massive blackouts in Pakistan continued on Monday,affecting most of its 220 million people in the country, including the metropolitan areas of Karachi and Lahore.
Energy Minister Khurrum Dastgir said authorities are restoring power across the country after more than 12 hours had passed since the outage. Power is beginning to be restored in parts of Islamabad,Lahore and Faisalabad.
The minister had previously said power would be fully restored across the country by 10pm after blackouts hit Pakistan caused by “frequency fluctuations” in the state-owned power grid.
In a televised address, the minister said “there had been widespread blackouts in the country, adding that authorities were working to restore power. “At 7:34 a.m the north-south transmission corridor experienced unusual voltage and frequency fluctuations, impacting the system frequency of the national power grid and causing widespread blackouts.”
He said the country’s power grid would not be affected, but explained that power is needed to run power plants and dams.
Discussing measures taken to improve blackouts, he said there is now a power plant in “Uch” operating. He said electricity generated by the plant, which powers some areas of Sindh, will also be diverted to parts of Balochistan and Punjab. He has personally overseen the matter at the National Power Control Center (NPCC) and assured the country that relevant authorities are working hard to restore power and expressed hope for sooner recovery in all areas.
