Islamabad:
Pakistan today faced a major power breakdown as its national grid system collapsed due to technical issues, plunging large parts of the country into darkness.
The power breakdown occurred at noon and except parts of Sindh and Balochistan, most of the country was deprived of electricity for several hours.
The Express Tribune reported that due to the immense load on the national grid, the frequency dropped from 50 to 47 Mega hertz, which had an immediate cascading effect on the system, resulting in a failure of the main Ghazi-Barotha hydel project.
The hospitals in Lahore and the city's airport suffered blackouts leading to flight delays while ICUs in hospitals were run on generators.
Initially, the cause of the breakdown was termed "routine" but later it was discovered that it was owing to a technical fault either at Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) or at a National Transmission and Dispatch Company.
The departments are uncertain from which end the fault has risen.
Wapda said the power outage might be an issue of low frequency by National Power Control Centre, which resulted in a technical failure at various power stations.
However, the National Transmission and Dispatch Company said that there was a fault in the powerhouse which disrupted the power system.
The Water and Power Ministry raced against time to restore the power to main cities.
It was restored to the federal capital by evening and garrison city of Rawalpindi by the night.
Power was also restored in parts of Lahore, Islamabad, Peshawar, Gujranwala and Faisalabad.
Ministry for Water and Power spokesperson said that reportedly faults occurred at Tarbela power house, which affects 500 KV transmission lines.