Karachi suffers massive power breakdown in sweltering weather

KARACHI: Karachi suffered a massive power breakdown on Saturday morning in the sweltering weather due a breakdown in Bin Qasim power station that left the power supply disrupted for whole day.

A huge area of the port city suffered up to nine hours or more of power outage as a plant at Bin Qasim bellowed heavy smoke from its gas insulating system due to a mechanical fault.

Large population and business centres across North Karachi, Golimar, Korangi, Nazimabad, North Nazimabad, Al-Asif Square, Saddar, Shah Faisal, Korangi, Old City Area, Lyarim Landhi, Liaquatabad, Gulistan-e-Jauhar, Federal B Area, Clifton, Safoora, PECHS, and Defense Housing Authority (DHA) were among the areas without power.

According to the K-Electric (KE), in Karachi, the power supply was interrupted after a 220 kV high tension line tripped. “Due to this, supply to associated grids was affected.” The power utility assured the residents that restoration had started and would be completed within one hour. However, till the filing of this story, several areas of the city remained devoid of power. The residents took to twitter to share their ordeal. The KE remarked that it is “urgently looking” into the breakdown reports. Around 6pm, the power utility tweeted from its account that power of PECHS, DHA, NIPA in Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Civil Lines area, North Nazimabad Block S and other areas has been restored. At around 10:30pm, the KE tweeted that due to load management some areas may experience power interruption, while the power supply to the city is continuing through 1,500 feeders.

However, a resident of DHA Phase IV complained that they haven’t had power since morning. “Our electricity has gone four times since morning. What is even happening?” Similarly, one of the residents of Gulistan-e-Jauhar lamented how his weekend was spoiled due to massive power breakdown in the city. A Covid-19 patient in Nazimabad explained how their power went off at 11pm on Friday and came back after dozens of complaints.

“At 6am, we were again without power in such hot weather,” she said, adding that she’s locked up in a room with her husband because both are suffering from Covid-19. “We are facing gas load shedding in our area from 12am to 6am so our generator was also not working. The whole night was a nightmare for the two of us in the house,” she said.

Meanwhile, a K-Electric spokesperson said: KE’s 220 kV Extra High Tension network on Saturday afternoon experienced tripping along with the 220 kV NKI-Baldia 1&2 circuit. The NTDC and KE teams immediately responded by coordinating closely for the restoration of the circuits. The connection with National Grid and subsequently power supply to all affected grids was restored within an hour. The power supply to the strategic installations such as the KWSB water pumping stations, airport and major hospitals of the city was also restored on priority basis while supply to areas such as North Nazimabad, Lyari, Federal B Area, Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Gulistan-e-Johar, Defence, and Clifton was normalised within a few hours.

Restoration of remaining affected parts of the city were underway on immediate basis while KE teams were also on ground.

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. 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 the next few hours.

Minister for Energy Hammad Azhar and officials of the 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."

The KE spokesperson added: "We appreciate the support of the government and NTDC teams in addressing the challenge faced by Karachi today. Installation of sufficient backup infrastructure and protection systems across our value chain has helped maintain our system's integrity and enabled us to continue supplying power through alternate channels.”