KARACHI/LAHORE: Large swathes of the metropolis plunged into darkness early on Monday morning due to power outage. This was the fourth major power breakdown in the city within a month.

According to K-Electric, the line coming from the National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) — the main authority to transmit power — had tripped.

Several areas, including Saddar, Burnes Road, FB Area, North Nazimabad, North Karachi, New Karachi, Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Defence, Garden, Buffer Zone, Nazimabad, Gulshan-i-Hadeed, PECHS, Mehmoodabad, Bahadurabad, Clifton, Airport, Malir, Shah Faisal Colony, Quaidabad, Korangi, Landhi, Sohrab Goth, Saddar, Safoora, Gulistan-i-Jauhar, Liaquatabad, Scheme 33, Gulshan-i-Maymar and Gadap, all lost power at around 6.24am.

The power supply disruption also caused severe shortage of water, as according to the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board, water supply to the city was suspended due to the outage.

The power utility said that the outage occurred as a rollover effect of abrupt disconnection of power supply to Karachi from the national grid due to adverse weather conditions. Currently, KE is receiving 650MW on average from the national grid.

It said that while partial power supply from the national grid of around 200MW was initiated within three hours, full supply was restored by 3pm on Monday.

According to the KE spokesperson: “Despite abrupt disconnection of power from the national grid which caused tripping in KE’s transmission line, KE’s generation units landed safely in island mode ensuring earliest possible restoration of power to the city. We sincerely regret the inconvenience caused to our valued customers and appreciate their cooperation.”

NTDC sources said that Karachi and some other areas in Sindh may also witness the same situation during winter, as the insulation level of the Port Qasim line — which has already declined due to deposition of pollutants emerging from the sea and fuel emission from the adjacent K-Electric’s oil-fired power plant — may decrease further owing to increasing humidity and fog in the area. Similar breakdowns, the sources added, are also expected in Punjab and other parts of the country in case the insulation level of the lines decreases owing to fog and humidity during winter.

“The power breakdown in Karachi was due to tripping of the 500kV Port Qasim line. And it happened after the insulation level of the line decreased a lot because of immense humidity and fog. This line is already in trouble (tripping time to time) due to pollutants arising from the sea salt impact and fuel emission from K-Electric’s oil-fired power plant,” a senior NTDC official told Dawn.

“Tripping of this line and others [affected] the K-Electric transmission and distribution system leading to disappearance of light in several parts of Karachi and adjoining areas connected with the system,” he added.

Published in Dawn, November 13th, 2018