January 15, 2021: Federal Minister for Energy Omar Ayub Khan on Friday informed the Senate that an independent inquiry was being underway to ascertain the root cause of the recent power breakdown in the country.
Concluding debate on a motion about the gas and energy crisis in the entire country, he said eight major power breakdowns occurred during the PML-N government which took days to restore the system.
However, he said despite the complete breakdown, the power system was restored within a few hours.
Omar said the power outage caused due to a technical fault developed at Guddu Power Plant. The initial fault occurred at Guddu power station at 2341 hours, dropping the frequency to zero, he said.
He said that the past government did not upgrade the transmission system. The incumbent government was making huge investments in the transmission and distribution system, he said.
He said Lahore to Matiari transmission line has already been laid with huge investment. The masses were facing problems due to the mismanagement and poor planning by the previous governments, he added.
The minister said that more investment would be made on the low performing units to enhance the capacity of the power generation.
He said today Energy Ministry was going to hold open bidding for 20 new oil and gas exploration blocks.
He said past governments did not work on the exploration of new blocks adding that the new exploration would make the country self-sufficient in the energy sector.
The minister said that he would brief the house about reforms in the energy sector. He said, “ We will sign Memorandum of Understanding with IPPs”.
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