Minister says there will be limited outages in some areas in the next 48 hours as coal and nuclear power plants will require more time to stabilise.
Islamabad, Pakistan – Power has been completely restored in Pakistan, says its energy minister, a day after it suffered its worst outage in months.
“All 1,112 grid stations restored within 24 hours,” Khurram Dastgir Khan told reporters on Tuesday.
In a tweet, Khan added that there will be limited power outages in various areas in the coming days as coal and nuclear power plants will require more time to stabilise.
“Around 6,600 MW coal and 3,500 MW nuclear plants are estimated to take 48 to 72 hours to restart. Till the operation of these plants, there will be limited load management except for industrial users,” he wrote.
Pakistan’s national grid collapsed early on Monday morning, affecting offices, businesses, hospitals and schools in the country of 220 million people.
Most of the country’s electricity was restored overnight but residents in big cities, including Karachi and Lahore, continued to report breakdowns.
It was the second major outage in Pakistan in four months and the first countrywide blackout since January 2021.
Khan said the authorities have not been able to find the exact reason for the breakdown, adding that a three-member committee has been constituted to investigate the latest outage.
“We need to probe if there was an external interference like an internet attack, although that’s less likely,” he said.
The minister also dismissed rumours that the country did not have enough fuel to run the power plants.