Technical Fault in National Grid’s Transmission Circuit Causes Tripping at KE’s Generation Plants

Lahore: KE has issued a statement explaining that the breakdown of the 500 KV NTDC (National Transmission Dispatch Company) transmission lines have caused a city-wide power outage in Karachi. KE’s spokesperson explained that due to the transmission lines’ sudden tripping early Friday morning, KE’s generation plants and EHT transmission circuits have been temporarily rendered ineffective.

KE’s spokesperson explained that a sudden loss of significant generation causes a major gap between supply and demand. Due to the unexpected interruption of about 650 MW supply from the national grid, KE’s generation system was suddenly overloaded, resulting in the massive breakdown.

In response, KE’s engineering and operations team immediately sprung into action. The utility company started the normalization of its downstream feeders soon after the outage while using its own resources to normalize supply to its network. Due to these efforts, several areas of Karachi are now receiving regular electricity supply.

In the meantime, it is hoped that at least one of the transmission lines will be operational soon, which will subsequently enable KE to quickly resume regular electric supply to the city.

KE’s spokesperson said, “We are trying our best to ensure that power supply is restored as soon as possible. Considering the magnitude of the transmission breakdown, it is not easy for us to immediately resume supply across the city though gradually more electricity is being generated.

“As of 5 pm, 60% of electric supply has been resumed and all 63 grid stations have been restored. However, feeders from these grids will gradually begin distributing electricity to consumers. We anticipate that within the next couple of hours the situation will be greatly improved.”

“We apologize to the citizens for the inconvenience caused, especially taking into account that this happened on the last Friday of Ramadan. We would also like to appeal to people to conserve as much energy as possible in order to ensure that a more equitable distribution of electricity,” he said.