2023 Pakistan Blackout
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The 2023 Pakistan blackout was a
power outage A power outage, also called a blackout, a power failure, a power blackout, a power loss, a power cut, or a power out is the complete loss of the electrical power network supply to an end user. There are many causes of power failures in an el ...
that occurred across the entirety of
Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...
on 23 January 2023. This was the second major grid breakdown in Pakistan in 2 years, and the second largest blackout in history. In the majority of the regions, the blackout lasted about 12–13 hours while in some areas such as rural communities, it lasted even longer, ranging from 24 to 72 hour long outages. Power was restored to the capital city, Islamabad, and its neighboring city, Rawalpindi, in about 8 hours. Lahore and Karachi received power after approximately 16 hours.


Cause

The Energy Ministry issued a statement on
Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...
that the system frequency of the national grid went down at 7:34 AM (02:34 GMT) on Monday morning. Officials stated that the outage began in southern Sindh Province after an unusual fluctuation in the voltage. The fluctuation led to a cascading failure at power plants across the country, until Pakistan was united in darkness. According to
NEPRA The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (, abbreviated as NEPRA) is responsible for regulating the electricity supply in Pakistan. It is also responsible for issuing licences for generation, transmission and distribution of electricity, ...
's official report, Pakistan's
electric grid An electrical grid (or electricity network) is an interconnected network for electricity delivery from producers to consumers. Electrical grids consist of power stations, electrical substations to step voltage up or down, electric power tran ...
can be divided into two roughly-independent systems: a generation-rich system to the south, and a load-rich system to the north. The grid transfers excess energy between the two (typically south-to-north) along a small number of AC interties and a dedicated
HVDC A high-voltage direct current (HVDC) electric power transmission system uses direct current (DC) for electric power transmission, in contrast with the more common alternating current (AC) transmission systems. Most HVDC links use voltages betwe ...
power line, which cannot deliver
reactive power In an electric circuit, instantaneous power is the time rate of flow of energy past a given point of the circuit. In alternating current circuits, energy storage elements such as inductors and capacitors may result in periodic reversals of the ...
. Usually, Guddu thermal generator can generate
reactive power In an electric circuit, instantaneous power is the time rate of flow of energy past a given point of the circuit. In alternating current circuits, energy storage elements such as inductors and capacitors may result in periodic reversals of the ...
at a key point intermediating the northern and southern system. Guddu was not operating at the time of the blackout for financial reasons, but grid dispatchers had not adjusted generation schedules to compensate. The outage began around 7:30, when 500 MW of wind power plants in the south came on-line and replaced the Ghazi-Barother hydropower station. The Ghazi-Barotha shutdown removed substantial reactive power generation from the northern system, and the grid began to exhibit voltage-current oscillations as reactive power sloshed between the northern and southern systems. Already, this extra power flow loaded the AC interties beyond design limits. At 7:34:14.9 the HVDC inverter in Lahore lost sync with the grid ("commutation failure") and ceased to deliver power. That power instead flowed through the overloaded AC network, and protection relays acted to separate the northern and southern systems. The northern
island An island or isle is a piece of land, distinct from a continent, completely surrounded by water. There are continental islands, which were formed by being split from a continent by plate tectonics, and oceanic islands, which have never been ...
could not survive the loss of roughly 5 GW imported power (50% of load). At first, the excess generation in the southern system only increased the
utility frequency The utility frequency, (power) line frequency (American English) or mains frequency (British English) is the nominal frequency of the oscillations of alternating current (AC) in a wide area synchronous grid transmitted from a power station to t ...
to 51.5 Hz. However, at that point
Karachi Electric K-Electric Limited (KE), formerly known as Karachi Electric Supply Company Limited or Karachi Electric Supply Corporation Limited, is a Pakistani utility company based in Karachi. Privatised in 2005, KE is the only vertically integrated utili ...
's 500 MW net load overeagerly islanded itself. Worse, Port Qasim unit #2 did not immediately trip off-line as expected, instead slowly throttling down. Other generators instead tripped to compensate for Port Qasim's continued power injection, but overshot, leaving the southern system now generation-deficient. Underfrequency load-shedding did not suffice to avert the decline as Port Qasim continued to throttle down, and frequency continued to decrease. When the remaining generators tripped off-line to protect their machinery from the low frequency, the system collapsed. Meanwhile, the Karachi Electric system shed 600 MW of load on underfrequency to balance the missing 500 MW imports. However, the 100 MW net change also caused Bin Qasim unit #3 to trip offline, overloading the remaining generators.
Black start A black start is the process of restoring an electric power station, a part of an electric grid or an industrial plant, to operation without relying on the external transmission network, electric power transmission network to recover from a tota ...
in the southern system proceeded rapidly, and initial power deliveries began within 2 hr of the blackout. Restoration of the northern system took substantially longer, because Tarbela hydroelectric station could not balance changes in local load. Poor operator training may have hindered Tarbela's ability to restore the system; NEPRA noted that the southern system's black start generator used a different control mode during system restoration than did the northern system's generators.


Areas affected

According to the Power Minister of Pakistan,
Khurram Dastgir Khan Khurram Dastgir Khan ( Punjabi, ; born 3 August 1970) is a Pakistani politician who had been a member of the National Assembly of Pakistan from August 2018 till August 2023. Previously, he was a member of the National Assembly of Pakistan from 2 ...
, the areas affected by power cuts included the major cities like
Islamabad Islamabad (; , ; ) is the capital city of Pakistan. It is the country's tenth-most populous city with a population of over 1.1 million and is federally administered by the Pakistani government as part of the Islamabad Capital Territory. Bu ...
,
Karachi Karachi is the capital city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Sindh, Pakistan. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, largest city in Pakistan and 12th List of largest cities, largest in the world, with a popul ...
,
Lahore Lahore ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, second-largest city in Pakistan, after Karachi, and ...
,
Peshawar Peshawar is the capital and List of cities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by population, largest city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It is the sixth most populous city of Pakistan, with a district p ...
and
Quetta Quetta is the capital and largest city of the Pakistani province of Balochistan. It is the ninth largest city in Pakistan, with an estimated population of over 1.6 million in 2024. It is situated in the south-west of the country, lying in a ...
, as well as dozens of small cities and towns. Almost 99% of Pakistan's population was in darkness around 9:30 PM (GMT+5) on January 23, 2023.


Impact

The blackout hit the Internet and mobile phone services. Several companies and hospitals said they had switched to backup generators, but disruptions continued. The blackout also resulted in $70m in losses for its textile industry. People in different cities also complained of water shortages as water pumps, which run on electricity, were not working. Many
ATMs An automated teller machine (ATM) is an electronic telecommunications device that enables customers of financial institutions to perform financial transactions, such as cash withdrawals, deposits, funds transfers, balance inquiries or account ...
also stopped working and people were unable to withdraw money due to no backup power.


See also

* 2003 Northeast blackout – major blackout also caused by reactive power deficiency *
2015 Turkey blackout The 2015 Turkey blackout was a widespread power outage that occurred in almost all parts of Turkey in the morning of Tuesday, 31 March 2015. The Turkish electric authority regularly performs maintenance in the spring in preparation for high el ...
 – blackout with load very far from generators (before disturbance)


References


Common sources

* * {{cite report, url=https://nepra.org.pk/publications/Reports/Jan%2023%20Blackout%20Report.pdf, institution=
NEPRA The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (, abbreviated as NEPRA) is responsible for regulating the electricity supply in Pakistan. It is also responsible for issuing licences for generation, transmission and distribution of electricity, ...
, title=Total Power Blackout in the Country on January 23, 2023, first1=Imran, last1=Kazi, first2=Nadir Ali, last2=Khoso, first3=Ghulam Abbas, last3=Memon, first4=Syed Safeer, last4=Hussain, first5=Manu, last5=Ram, first6=Syed Aqib, last6=Ali Shah, date=14 Mar 2023, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240317014527/https://nepra.org.pk/publications/Reports/Jan%2023%20Blackout%20Report.pdf, archive-date=17 Mar 2024 Power outages in Pakistan January 2023 in Pakistan