National power grid survives major breakdown

E-Paper | February 28, 2026

ISLAMABAD: The national power grid survived a major breakdown on Friday as the Tarbela and Ghazi Barotha powerhouses suffered a technical fault, depriving a large part of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab province of electricity for almost five hours.

According to a spokesman for the Water and Power Ministry, NTDC engineers had managed to temporarily fix the transmission line, which suffered a major fault earlier today. However, the spokesman said that efforts were still being made to synchronise the power frequencies to restore regular production of electricity from all power plants.

Mardan, Swabi, Nowshera, Haripur, Attock, Lahore, Gujranwala, Sialkot, Gujrat, Faisalabad, Chakwal, Jehlum were some of the areas affected by the technical breakdown today, including complete disruption of power supply in some regions.

Power was temporarily restored to several parts of KP and Punjab at the time of filing of this report, while engineers were working to restore supply to other affected areas.

Officials of the water and power ministry said that at around 11am, a technical fault appeared in the Tarbela Power plant, which also affected the power production from Ghazi Barotha, causing the Northern Transmission line to trip.

The fault resulted in a disruption of electricity supply to 70 per cent areas of KP province, and north and central Punjab. The tripping of the main transmission line also resulted in the breakdown of supply from other power plants.

Officials said that timely response from the National Power Control Center helped avert a major breakdown of the power system, which could have even resulted in nationwide electricity supply disruption similar to what was witnessed across Pakistan in 2012.

Upper KP, southern Punjab, Balochistan and Sindh stayed unaffected from the breakdown.

According to sources, the technical fault in Tarbela was triggered because of production being unable to match levels of demand, as a minimum amount of electricity is being generated from furnace oil-based power plants during the day.

A major portion of electricity supply for Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is dependent on power generation from Tarbela and Mangla dams.

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salman

Dec 12, 2014 05:37pm

Mian sahib, I thought you were going to reduce electricity prices, not electricity! ;)

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Dec 12, 2014 06:00pm

You forgot to mention Islamabad!

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gohar

Dec 12, 2014 06:15pm

No power in fsd as yet since 11 am.

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shahid

Dec 12, 2014 06:26pm

No power in Lahore since 1 pm.

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mirza

Dec 12, 2014 06:29pm

We are still with out electricity in Jhelum city at this time of the hour. Its 6.30

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Amjad Khalid

Dec 12, 2014 06:36pm

I think Mian NS wants to stop media news of PTI Karachi show.

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Baba De Kamaqlano

Dec 12, 2014 07:09pm

Power has not yet been restored at Kohat. May be the city has got last priority.

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Abbas

Dec 12, 2014 07:14pm

The breakdown also affected Bahwalpur. No Electricity sice 11 am.

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Rajab Ali

Dec 12, 2014 07:24pm

A conspiracy against the Punjab to deprive people from watching the Imran's Karachi protest.

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Uzair Latif

Dec 12, 2014 07:33pm

No power in Lahore either from about 1:20PM

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yousad

Dec 12, 2014 08:15pm

When will it b restored???

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Dec 12, 2014 08:52pm

@salman Great sense of humor, but true.

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z lodhi

Dec 12, 2014 09:20pm

Its past 9 pm, still black out in DHA Lahore

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Pervaiz Lodhie

Dec 12, 2014 09:47pm

Dear PM, it is funny for people to get small relief in power rate where power is not even available most of the time. People would pay more but 24 hours a day power availability. Rest of the world is now already into using solar power and LED lighting revolution while Pakistan is getting farther behind. Your 15 month old government could have easily placed 15 small solar farms of 100 to 200 megawatts as a start across Pakistan partnering with local and international private sectors. Pakistan could have initiated a 50% subsidy to businesses and homeowners who convert to using solar energy for at least 10 to 20% of their energy needs. Many countries are providing free solar power system to reduce load and cost on their grid. In USA we get 50% or more subsidy. You have now few good professionals in your team Musadik Malik but you need many more empowered individuals around you.

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fahmeed

Dec 12, 2014 10:09pm

Shareef khandan does not want people in Punjab to see the amazingly successful PTI protests.

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salman

Dec 12, 2014 11:37pm

@fahmeed your sense is your responsibilty to keep or throw away. use the oppurtunity wisely

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timurid

Dec 12, 2014 11:39pm

The comments here are disheartening. Circuit trips happen on all grids everywhere. Nowhere in the world does supply exactly match demand. It's admirable that the blackout was only a few hours. Before seeing political conspiracy in everything please read about recent blackouts and brownouts in NY, California, northern India, Bangladesh to list a few.

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Awais Ali

Dec 13, 2014 12:36am

How coincident it is when IK was about to reach Karachi around 1pm the light was off and when he finished his speech around 6pm it restored. And amazingly WAPDA is still unable to mention publicly that what was the fault. So point is clear Main saab this nation has awaken.

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