PESHAWAR, Aug 6: A heavy power transformer of National Transmission and Dispatch Company at Mardan developed a major fault on Monday leaving a large number of power consumers in several parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa without power.

“A 160mba transformer of NTDC’s 220kv grid station at Mardan developed a major technical fault, rendering it non-functional,” said a relevant official. As a result, a large number of power consumers in Nowshera, Mardan, Chakdarra, Dargai, Jalala, and a few other areas would suffer power outages longer than usual hours of loadshedding for next few days, said the official.

“Technical staff is working to restore the transformer,” said Shaukat Afzal, a spokesman of Pesco. He said it would take a couple of days to remove the fault.

However, another official said the repair work would take about one week to make the transformer functional.