Pakistan scrambles to restore power after second major grid breakdown in months - Reuters

ISLAMABAD, Jan 23 (Reuters) - Pakistan's authorities said it was scrambling to reconstruct powerfulness to millions of radical connected Monday aft a breakdown successful the grid triggered the worst energy outage successful months and highlighted the anemic infrastructure of the heavy indebted nation.

Energy Minister Khurram Dastgir told reporters an enquiry had been launched into the outage, which helium had said was caused by a voltage surge. "We person faced immoderate hurdles but we volition flooded these hurdles, and volition reconstruct the power," helium added.

The outage is the 2nd large grid nonaccomplishment successful 3 months, and adds to the blackouts that Pakistan's astir 220 cardinal radical endure connected an astir regular basis.

Analysts and officials blasted these powerfulness problems connected the ageing energy network, which similar overmuch of the nationalist infrastructure, desperately needs an upgrade the authorities says it tin sick afford.

The International Monetary Fund has bailed retired Pakistan 5 times successful the past 2 decades. Its latest bailout tranche, however, is stuck owed to differences with the authorities implicit a programme reappraisal that should person been completed successful November.

"There's an underlying weakness successful the system," said an vigor ministry official, who declined to beryllium named arsenic they were not authorised to talk to the media. "Generators are excessively acold from the load centres and transmission lines are excessively agelong and insufficient."

Pakistan has capable installed powerfulness capableness to conscionable demand, but it lacks resources to tally its oil-and-gas powered plants. The assemblage is truthful heavy successful indebtedness that it cannot spend to put successful infrastructure and powerfulness lines. China has invested successful its powerfulness assemblage arsenic portion of a $60 cardinal infrastructure strategy that feeds into Beijing's "Belt and Road" initiative.

"We person been adding capacity, but we person been doing truthful without improving transmission infrastructure," said Fahad Rauf, caput of probe astatine Karachi brokerage Ismail Iqbal Industries.

Schools, hospitals, homes and offices crossed swathes of Pakistan person been without powerfulness since astir 7 americium section clip (0200 GMT) connected a winter's time wherever temperatures are forecast to autumn to astir 4 degrees Celsius (39°F) successful the superior Islamabad and 8 degrees Celsius (46°F) successful fiscal hub Karachi.

Many radical besides person nary moving h2o due to the fact that determination was nary powerfulness to the pumps. "People are suffering severely from this powerfulness cut," said Sagar Pahuja, a h2o and sanitation serviceman astatine the municipality of Jacobabad, a confederate metropolis with regular scheduled powerfulness cuts.

Earlier, Dastgir told Reuters that supplies were being partially restored from the northbound to the southbound and that the grid should beryllium afloat functioning by 10 p.m. (1700 GMT). It besides took hours to reconstruct powerfulness aft the past large outage.

The outage deed Internet and mobile telephone services, the telecoms regulator said. Several companies and hospitals said they had switched to back-up generators, but disruptions remained.

"I americium facing a batch of problems due to the fact that of the powerfulness outage," said Karachi nonmigratory Mohammad Khurram, who was accompanying his sick mother-in-law astatine a metropolis hospital. "I person to support bringing her successful and retired of the gathering due to the fact that the x-ray machines and different investigating units are affected."

Reporting by Asif Shahazad, Ariba Shahid and Gibran Naiyyar Peshimam, further reporting by Jibran Ahmad successful Peshawar and Mubasher Bukhari successful Lahore and Charlotte Greenfield successful Kabul; penning by Shilpa Jamkhandikar and Miral Fahmy; editing by Sudipto Ganguly & Simon Cameron-Moore

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