Power breakdown in entire Pakistan

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Major power breakdown plunges entire country into darkness

A massive power breakdown plunged the entire country into darkness minutes before midnight on Saturday, Energy Minister Omar Ayub confirmed in a statement.

The blackout was initially reported on social media by residents of major urban centres such as Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad and Multan, as well as other towns and cities across the country.

Tarbela dam tripped



Yep. Light gone the entire night.
 

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Major power breakdown plunges entire country into darkness

A massive power breakdown plunged the entire country into darkness minutes before midnight on Saturday, Energy Minister Omar Ayub confirmed in a statement.

The blackout was initially reported on social media by residents of major urban centres such as Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad and Multan, as well as other towns and cities across the country.

Tarbela dam tripped



Yep. Light gone the entire night.
Is it clear now what was the reason behindit?
 

Saiyan0321

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Is it clear now what was the reason behindit?

Tarbela tripped which made the substations trip causing shortages to all regions which used energy provided from tarbela dam. Well Lahore got it's light at 8am but sheikhupura at 1pm but at 1:44 it left again. Most likely another fault at the substations.
 

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That is so unreal. All power plants failing or distribution net dying is bad news. I assumed Pakistan as bare minimum had secured some functionality on regional level in case of these occurrances.

We desperately need more dams and other sources of energy. We are heavily reliant on two major dams. Mangla and tarbela.
 

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We desperately need more dams and other sources of energy. We are heavily reliant on two major dams. Mangla and tarbela.
Possibly you need more solar plants and wind mills to have some balance in system (it saves water for irrigation too) and better distribution infrastrucutre, that one is key for energy system stability.
One more argument for solar and wind energy is that it creates more jobs than conventional sources of electrical energy.
 
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adenl

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So all of the new powerplants that came online in the last 6 years or so didn't help?
 

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Possibly you need more solar plants and wind mills to have some balance in system (it saves water for irrigation too) and better distribution infrastrucutre, that one is key for energy system stability.
One more argument for solar and wind energy is that it creates more jobs than conventional sources of electrical energy.

Indeed so and while there are new plants that do provide such energy but they are like a drop in the ocean that is needed to power pakistan. The sheet population and growing urbanization and poor transmission lines, demand huge amounts of energy that are only powered using either hydro or nuclear and hydro is the short term for us and natural resource that we can use.
So all of the new powerplants that came online in the last 6 years or so didn't help?

I wouldn't say that due to two major reasons. The new plants made sure that the central grid has enough energy to provide for the needs of the country even in summer which means that those new plants added to the electricity supply and saw power outage greatly reduced.

However even those plants have to supply the power to substations which are connected to other power stations and these substations are ones that tripped causing outage. Pakistan has also built mini substations for power stations for specific regions which are separate from the central energy grid for remote regions most notably are the mini dams in GB and FATA.
 

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Indeed so and while there are new plants that do provide such energy but they are like a drop in the ocean that is needed to power pakistan. The sheet population and growing urbanization and poor transmission lines, demand huge amounts of energy that are only powered using either hydro or nuclear and hydro is the short term for us and natural resource that we can use.


I wouldn't say that due to two major reasons. The new plants made sure that the central grid has enough energy to provide for the needs of the country even in summer which means that those new plants added to the electricity supply and saw power outage greatly reduced.

However even those plants have to supply the power to substations which are connected to other power stations and these substations are ones that tripped causing outage. Pakistan has also built mini substations for power stations for specific regions which are separate from the central energy grid for remote regions most notably are the mini dams in GB and FATA.
Hm. I was thinking smart grid would be a good solution for the two most important energy sources as the grid would divert the energy to compensate for theee kind of incidents.
 

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I believe the power generation has been beefed up in the last few years with quite a few coal, nuclear, solar stations come or about gto come on stream. There is also huge new dams like Bhasha-Diamer on the Indus cascade being built which given dams have long gestation times will take feew more years to reach completion.

The main issue I think that needs looking at now is the grid system. My understanding is Pakistan's grid is antiquated and needs massive investment with new lines needed to take the slack when facing heavy loads. Lot of the cuts out happen because of this old grid system which often trips causing local blackouts. When I was in PK my village had such events twice in 6 weeks.
 

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Is it clear now what was the reason behind it?
No apparent reason at all, just the people in charge got pressed from opposition, minorities, failure, hyper inflation and they shot a 21 year old dude in the capital with some 15+ bullets in the back b/z he wasn't in the mood for harassment, c/z of bad press distraction was need and what else could be better then blackout!

Power outage, low voltage, tripping, antiquated transmission lines etc are not a new thing in Pakistan. Entire country is blackout, each and every city 1st in the history actually. It is now a new record :(.
 

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I believe the power generation has been beefed up in the last few years with quite a few coal, nuclear, solar stations come or about gto come on stream. There is also huge new dams like Bhasha-Diamer on the Indus cascade being built which given dams have long gestation times will take feew more years to reach completion.

The main issue I think that needs looking at now is the grid system. My understanding is Pakistan's grid is antiquated and needs massive investment with new lines needed to take the slack when facing heavy loads. Lot of the cuts out happen because of this old grid system which often trips causing local blackouts. When I was in PK my village had such events twice in 6 weeks.

Indeed. The entire grid needs a massive update. We have a few major problems in our energy sector that needs immediate solutions.

Growing urbanization is creating greater demands for energy and creating a burden on the grid. This is especially true for growing CPEC projects. Even the durand fence, home to various forts and lights is another requirement on our grid. So as pakistan becomes more connected and urbanized and regions start to become developed, the energy requirement is steadily increasing.

Poor transmission lines. The 2015 blackout happened due to poor transmission lines and the transmission lines are responsible for shortages in energy and wastage of energy. Which means that we might be producing more energy but we are also losing it more due to poor transmission lines. Then we have another major problem is that we need to carry the energy through transmission lines all over pakistan even to remote regions. Pakistan is no small country. It is a pretty large country and to provide energy to each and every city or village in pakistan is extremely difficult using transmission lines. We need regions to have independent energy lines as well. Like remote regions have started focusing on self energy supplies like mini dams which power the region. This was a major hit in gilgit baltistan due to which they have zero summer loadshedding but the downside is that the mini dams freezes in winter and in winter they have mass loadshedding.

The. We have kundas and half connections which lead to energy being taken by houses and industries without payment for it and accounting of it. FATA was notorious for it and of course the waderas, jagirdars, sardars are equally responsible for this and industrialists and government buildings as well.

For which we come to the next problem. Low recovery of bills. When the state and it's politicians don't pay electric bills which are in tens of lakhs, then how can we expect the energy sector to grow and stabilize itself. All these problems accumulate and add to the larger problem at hand.


Massive investment and a massive overhaul and it must be done quickly otherwise we would be wasting the energy from the various energy projects being built.

Anyhow I won't criticize Imran here since his government went into action quickly and energy was restored largely to major cities and while smaller cities like sheikhupura are still facing power cuts, like right now, but that is understand since such a massive event would take time to stabilize.
 

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Indeed. The entire grid needs a massive update. We have a few major problems in our energy sector that needs immediate solutions.

Growing urbanization is creating greater demands for energy and creating a burden on the grid. This is especially true for growing CPEC projects. Even the durand fence, home to various forts and lights is another requirement on our grid. So as pakistan becomes more connected and urbanized and regions start to become developed, the energy requirement is steadily increasing.

Poor transmission lines. The 2015 blackout happened due to poor transmission lines and the transmission lines are responsible for shortages in energy and wastage of energy. Which means that we might be producing more energy but we are also losing it more due to poor transmission lines. Then we have another major problem is that we need to carry the energy through transmission lines all over pakistan even to remote regions. Pakistan is no small country. It is a pretty large country and to provide energy to each and every city or village in pakistan is extremely difficult using transmission lines. We need regions to have independent energy lines as well. Like remote regions have started focusing on self energy supplies like mini dams which power the region. This was a major hit in gilgit baltistan due to which they have zero summer loadshedding but the downside is that the mini dams freezes in winter and in winter they have mass loadshedding.

The. We have kundas and half connections which lead to energy being taken by houses and industries without payment for it and accounting of it. FATA was notorious for it and of course the waderas, jagirdars, sardars are equally responsible for this and industrialists and government buildings as well.

For which we come to the next problem. Low recovery of bills. When the state and it's politicians don't pay electric bills which are in tens of lakhs, then how can we expect the energy sector to grow and stabilize itself. All these problems accumulate and add to the larger problem at hand.


Massive investment and a massive overhaul and it must be done quickly otherwise we would be wasting the energy from the various energy projects being built.

Anyhow I won't criticize Imran here since his government went into action quickly and energy was restored largely to major cities and while smaller cities like sheikhupura are still facing power cuts, like right now, but that is understand since such a massive event would take time to stabilize.
Privatizing it is one option. Problem is companies going to run it need security for their investments.

e.g. In Turkeys Diyarbakir area, private company didn’t get paid, so they cut the electricity, this resulted in the governor to arrest, force resupply, but they still didn’t get paid what they were owed.

This is why companies don’t want to take over crappy business.

we also have problems with illegal electricity usage. I hope there is a solution to it.
 

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Privatizing it is one option. Problem is companies going to run it need security for their investments.

e.g. In Turkeys Diyarbakir area, private company didn’t get paid, so they cut the electricity, this resulted in the governor to arrest, force resupply, but they still didn’t get paid what they were owed.

This is why companies don’t want to take over crappy business.

we also have problems with illegal electricity usage. I hope there is a solution to it.
most efficient model for start is distribution network privatizing and after some time energy plants to.
 

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Privatizing it is one option. Problem is companies going to run it need security for their investments.

e.g. In Turkeys Diyarbakir area, private company didn’t get paid, so they cut the electricity, this resulted in the governor to arrest, force resupply, but they still didn’t get paid what they were owed.

This is why companies don’t want to take over crappy business.

we also have problems with illegal electricity usage. I hope there is a solution to it.
Privatization is pursued aggressively in Pakistan, hospitals, airports, state owned industries and power plants but only mafia can buy it.
There was a private solar power company once upon a time and they were not getting paid by the government and the decided to to cut the power, now they are no where to be found. Same happened to a family owning mining rights of topaz mine most of them were killed and the mine is deserted now, scavenged by any one with long arms.
Illegal electric usage is not new in Pakistan. Industrialist, Employees in power department have a free hand (They also have a privilege to use chunky amount of power). Abusive usage by people residing in remote areas and some common people too, As power is too expensive and government is too busy in other important things like blame game.
 

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No apparent reason at all, just the people in charge got pressed from opposition, minorities, failure, hyper inflation and they shot a 21 year old dude in the capital with some 15+ bullets in the back b/z he wasn't in the mood for harassment, c/z of bad press distraction was need and what else could be better then blackout!
Are you suggesting this was done on purpose? And I believe we are all required to show our locations. 'Nowhere' is not a location. @T-123456
 

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