Major power blackout hits half of Pakistan

• 5 years ago (2018-05-17)
• David Flin

Asia 846 Transmission 181

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Half of Pakistan had an eight-hour power outage on 16 May, following a major power breakdown in the country’s transmission system, leaving the Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Azad Jammu and Kashmir without power.

According to the initial report, the 500kV transmission line Guddy 747-Rahim Yar Khan tripped at 09.28 am, and at the same time, the 500kV Guddu-DG Khan transmission line also tripped. As a result, the 500kV Guddu-Muzaffargarh transmission line overloaded and tripped. Meanwhile, some other power stations, including the four units at Chashma Nuclear Power Plant tripped. It is thought that this was a result of frequency fluctuations.

The southern part of Pakistan was unaffected by the outage.

An enquiry committee has been formed to ascertain the reason for the tripping, the process of restoration, and suggestions for the system to avoid a recurrence. Before the trip, the system had excess supply over demand. Therefore, it is believed that the breakdown was associated with a system fault.