Power restored to most of Karachi, K-Electric says

KARACHI: Power supply was restored to most parts of the city ahead of midnight on Saturday, after joint efforts by K-Electric and National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC), a statement said.

According to the statement, KE’s 220 kV Extra High Tension network on Saturday afternoon experienced tripping along with the 220 kV NKI-Baldia 1&2 circuit.

"NTDC and KE teams immediately responded by coordinating closely for the restoration of the circuits," read the statement.

It said that the connection with the national grid and subsequently power supply to all affected grids was restored within the hour.

"Power supply to strategic installations such as KWSB (Karachi Water Supply Board) water pumping stations, airport, and major hospitals of the city was also restored on priority basis," the statement said.

It added that supply to areas such as North Nazimabad, Lyari, Federal B Area, Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Gulistan-e-Johar, Defence, and Clifton was also normalised "within a few hours".

The statement noted that restoration in a few remaining affected parts of the city was "underway on immediate basis" with teams from KE aiding in the efforts on the ground.

According to KE, during the restoration process, initial reports were received of smoke from one of four busbars used for outgoing supply of power from the KE’s Bin Qasim Power Station 1 whereas no fault was discovered on the generation side.

"The damaged busbar was isolated and alternate busbars were utilised to bring BQPS 1 back online," it said.

"Power from BQPS 2, NKI and IPPS is being supplied to the city whereas full load of BQPS 1 is expected to be added into the system in next few hours," KE added.

Minister for Energy Hammad Azhar and Officials of Ministry of Energy (Power Division) appreciated the joint efforts saying: “Close coordination between the Government and KE teams enabled us to contain the situation in a very short span of time. This also allowed KE to begin swift restoration efforts to the city.”

Several areas report outages nonetheless

Even as KE issued a statement that power had mostly been restored to the city, several areas reported they continue to face outages.

Power supply was reported to remain suspended in Gulshan-e-Iqbal Block 10A and in Gulistan-e-Johar Block-16A since two hours (at the time of this report).

In Model Colony, Scheme 33 area, it was said to have been suspended for several hours.

Power supply to Karachi Race Club, Revenue Judicial Society was also reported to be suspended since several hours.

Federal B Area Block 21 reported an outage since 10am.

Nagan Chowrangi area residents said they had been without power for three straight hours.

In Garden West, power was said to have been disrupted since 8pm.

Furthermore, power outages were reported out of Malir Rafa Aam and adjoining areas since 10:30pm and in Korangi No 5 since 10pm.