Pakistan’s energy ministry says the country has suffered a nationwide power breakdown due to a fault in the national grid, with witnesses reporting power cuts in all major cities.
Blackouts are being reported in large swathes of Pakistani cities, including Karachi, Quetta, Peshawar and Lahore.
Supply to some areas has been suspended by up to 90 per cent, according to initial reports.
The ministry said the system frequency of the national grid was reduced at around 7.34am on Monday, which resulted in “widespread breakdown in the power system”.
“System maintenance work is progressing rapidly,” it said in a tweet.
Pakistan’s power minister Khurrum Dastagir told Geo News said power generation units had been temporarily shut down as a measure to save fuel, as the country reels with the ongoing economic crisis in the country.
But he denied calling it a “major crisis”.
“When the systems were turned on at 7.30am this morning one by one, frequency variation was reported in the southern part of the country between Jamshoro and Dadu. There was a fluctuation in voltage and the systems were shut down one by one,” said Mr Dastagir.
After 10am the energy ministry said in an update that restoration work on the power grids had begun and some grids, including those operated by the Islamabad Supply Company and Peshawar Supply Company, had been at least partially restored.
Several private power distribution companies also confirmed the breakdown at their end amid massive power outages across the country.
The Quetta Electric Supply Company (QESCO) said two transmission lines in towns between Sindh province and Quetta had tripped. It said that 22 districts of Balochistan, including Quetta itself, are without power.
The Islamabad Electric Supply Company said 117 grid stations were without electricity, adding that “no clear reason has been given by the Region Control Center”.
In the first week of January, authorities in Pakistan ordered shopping malls and markets to close by 8.30pm as part of a new energy conservation plan aimed at easing Pakistan‘s economic crisis.
Pakistan is grappling with a domestic and foreign financial crisis following unprecedented floods last year and international donors recently pledged poured over $9bn in financial aid, including $1bn from Saudi Arabia alone.
The flood-hit nation has also got assistance from the US and France, after pleas from the country’s prime minister and United Nations chief Antonio Guterres.
The government is attempting to save energy and curtail the costs of imported oil, on which Pakistan spends $3bn annually. Most of Pakistan’s electricity is generated by using imported oil.
The cash-strapped nation is also in talks with IMF to soften some conditions on its $6bn bailout deal, which the government thinks will cause a further increase in inflation.
