Pakistan goes dark after electrical fault causes nationwide blackout

Pakistan is slowly recovering after the entire country experienced an electrical blackout today. Power minister Omar Ayub Khan tweeted that this latest blackout was caused by a fault in southern Pakistan at 11:41pm local time yesterday, which was at 3:41am today here in Thailand.

“The fault tripped the transmission system of the country… leading to the shutdown of power plants.”

The blackout darkened all of Pakistan’s cities, including the capital Islamabad, its economic hub of Karachi and the 2nd largest city of Lahore.

“The breakdown took place when frequency tripped from 50 to 0 in the electricity distribution system. However, electricity is gradually being restored across the country.”

There were no immediate answers as to whether hotels experienced a disruption as they often rely on back-up generators. Power has been restored to some parts of the country but many areas in Lahore and Karachi were still waiting according to a water and power ministry spokesman.

The same spokesman says an investigation is underway to find out the cause of the blackout, which also saw the internet connectivity nationwide to collapse. Netblocks, which monitors internet outages said on Twitter that the blackout caused a dip in levels.

Pakistan’s electricity distribution system is a “complex and delicate” web, and a problem in 1 section of the grid can lead to a domino effect in breakdowns nationwide.

In 2015 a rebel attack on a key power line sent about 80% of Pakistan into darkness. That blackout, which was one of the worst in Pakistan’s history, caused major cities, including Islamabad, to go dark, even affecting one of the country’s international airports.

SOURCE: Bangkok Post