Power shortfall hikes to 1,200MW as NTDC lines trip

A spokesman of the Power Division informed on Tuesday that 1,200 megawatts (MW) of electricity have disappeared from the national grid owing to tripping of power lines of the National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC).

The news explained intermittent power cuts across the country since late Wednesday. 

The spokesman stated that the power plants affected by the tripping include plants one to four of the Chashma Nuclear Power Plant.

He added that three LNG plants — Haveli, Bhikki and Baloki — with a combined production capacity of 3,600 MW, are also not operating due to testing. 

He assured that Chashma's plants one and two could be operational by evening today whereas restoring the other two will take time. 

The Neelum-Jhelum Power Plant is also in a testing phase at present, he informed. 

Power distributors will thus be carrying out load-shedding to cater to the loss of electricity, he said, adding that outages will take place keeping in mind high and low loss areas.