Blackout on October 13: What went wrong?
After a problem in the southern transmission system of the national grid was discovered last week on October 13, several areas of Pakistan, primarily Sindh, Punjab, and Balochistan, were left without electricity.
The transmission system across Pakistan had to be restored by the authorities, and it took them several hours before the electrical supply was back to normal (almost 24 hours later).
The National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) then established a committee to investigate the causes of the “partial blackout.”
A four-person committee was established, with Chief Engineer (OP) NPCC Islamabad Muhammad Zakaria Member, General Manager (AM) North Lahore Anwar Ahmed Khan, Chief Engineer (TSG) North Lahore Muhammad Ijaz Khan, and General Manager (Technical) Lahore Muhammad Mustafa as its chairman.
The NTDC committee has identified the causes of the blackout, and the Ministry of Energy is taking prompt disciplinary action in light of the report, according to a handout from the Power Division on Wednesday.
The following explanations were given in the statement:
The initial cause of the outage is the shoddy work done on Tower No. 26 at Karachi’s nuclear power facilities K-2 and K-3 three years ago, in 2019.
The delivery system’s failure raises concerns about the reliability of the machinery employed in 2019 and the effectiveness of the workforce. Its connections were changed and used for this temporary connexion even though they were not designed for the transmission line.
At Towers Nos. 26, 26-A, and 27, the project team used conductors that were 25 years old and in poor condition.
Despite the vulnerability of nuclear power facilities in 2019, they were not routinely repaired and maintained in accordance with the recommended requirements.
The Nuclear Energy Commission is not in charge of setting up or maintaining the transmission system.
The Atomic Energy Commission’s spokesperson clarified in response to the inquiry report regarding the blackout last week that the commission was not in charge of electricity transmission and that the NTDC was in charge of installing and maintaining transmission grids.
The K2 and K3 facilities were negatively impacted by the transmission line breakage, he continued, and it is “absolutely incorrect” to infer from media claims that the K2 and K3 reactors’ repairs were subpar.
“Our nuclear power facilities are kept in the finest possible condition with regard to safety and upkeep. Moreover, it has nothing to do with the transmission line “said the spokeswoman.
