Pakistan: After a national grid failure on 23rd January, power was out across Pakistan. According to media sources, power was down in all major cities, including Karachi, Islamabad, Lahore, and Peshawar.

The grid experienced a “widespread breakdown” at 7.34 AM, as per the tweet from Pakistan’s Ministry of Energy. The National Grid’s system frequency decreased at 7:34 this morning. The power system experienced a widespread breakdown. The tweet stated that “system maintenance work is progressing quickly.”

ابتدائی اطلاعات کے مطابق آج صبح 7:34 پر نیشنل گرڈ کی سسٹم فریکوئنسی کم ہوئ جس سے بجلی کے نظام میں وسیع بریک ڈاؤن ہوا
سسٹم کی بحالی پر کام تیزی سےجاری ہے

— Ministry of Energy (@MoWP15) January 23, 2023

Mr. Khurrum Dastagir stated that, “This is not a major crisis,” and some grids in the country had already been restored. “I can assure you that power will be fully restored across the country within the next 12 hours,” Dawn quoted the Minister as saying.

The Energy Ministry tweeted that, “The restoration of grid stations has been started from Warsak and Islamabad in the last one hour. A limited number of grids of Ply Company and Peshawar Supply Company have been restored.”

Worst-case scenarios predict that Pakistan will continue to face severe power shortages for at least several more years. The crisis peaked in the summer of 2022, resulting in protracted countrywide power outages.  As a percentage of Pakistan’s GDP, investments in the power sector have been stagnant or declining for decades.

The majority of the nation’s power plants rely on imported fuel, so they were particularly badly hit by the post-pandemic rise in demand and the worldwide supply shock brought on by the water in Ukraine. In Pakistan, the cost of energy imports skyrocketed due to rising gasoline prices and a depreciating rupee versus an advancing dollar.

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