Pakistan plunged into darkness by overnight blackout

The entire city of Islamabad, Pakistan's capital, lost power in the blackout.

JANUARY 10, 2021 07:17

A general view of a residential area is seen during a power breakdown in Karachi (photo credit: AKHTAR SOOMRO / REUTERS) — A general view of a residential area is seen during a power breakdown in Karachi

(photo credit: AKHTAR SOOMRO / REUTERS)

Much of Pakistan was plunged into darkness on Saturday night after a power outage struck the country.

The entire city of Islamabad, Pakistan's capital, lost power in the blackout, according to Geo News.

Omar Ayub Khan, Pakistan's Energy Minister tweeted that the outage occurred after the frequency in the national power distribution system (NTDC) suddenly fell from 50 to zero. It is unclear what caused the issue.

Power was slowly restored to many areas overnight.

An initial report by the Energy Ministry found that a fault occurred in Guddu, located just north of the border with India, about a quarter of an hour before midnight, bringing the frequency of the NTDC to 0 in less than one second and shutting down power plants.

Update: Real-time telemetry show few signs of recovery as #Pakistan's power grid failure continues into its 6th hour; national internet connectivity is now down to 52% of ordinary levels with growing impact observed on #Islamabad #BlackoutPakistan https://t.co/9UFc6mpfTj pic.twitter.com/YRr7FS9OAV
— NetBlocks.org (@netblocks) January 10, 2021

Mobile and internet services were also affected by the power outage, with internet watchdog NetBlocks reporting that national internet connectivity dropped to at least as low as 52% overnight.