Power disruptions in Pakistan.

Pakistan's generators produced more power than was required on Monday, causing voltage

fluctuations that culminated in a system collapse that plunged 220 million people into darkness, an internal government document reviewed by Reuters showed.

Complete grid failures are rare, and operators of modern grids count local shocks from integrating renewable energy as their primary challenge. But the blackout in Pakistan on Monday was its second near-complete grid failure and the third in south Asia in three months.

The grid's failure plunged 220 million people into darkness for a whole day and disrupted commercial activity as outages also hit internet and mobile services.

According to the note, the grid frequency was already 50.30 hz moments before the incident.

The severe frequency fluctuations in the transmission lines caused it to trip, Sajjad Akthar, general manager at state-run National Transmission and Distribution Company, wrote in the note drafted on Tuesday.

«Transmission lines tripped, which resulted in the isolation of the north and south system,» Akthar said in the note.

Pakistan's energy ministry did not respond to a request for comment. However, demand potentially far exceeded supply in the northern grid after the isolation, as most power generators were located in the south, causing further instability, according to an industry official who reviewed the note.

The official declined to be named as he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Pakistan's Energy Minister Khurram Dastgir had said in a tweet on Monday a «large voltage swing» in the south had «cascaded northwards» to cause a breakdown but did not elaborate.

Pakistan started restoring power by operating hydropower stations in the north and gas-fired utilities in the south, the note read, as they take the least time to generate power.

www.sba.tax

Comments

Cloud Bookkeeping

HS2 cost cuts new routes and add delays.

Transport department officials have begun work on «Project Silverlight» suggesting the highspeed rail scheme might face four additional years of delay. The planned High Speed 2 rail line faces further delays of up to four years and more cuts to the project under plans being drawn up by ministers to rein in its ballooning costs. The extra delays to the country’s biggest infrastructure project would mean that it would not be completed until as late as 2045 — 12 years after originally planned. «This is a function of inflation; we are having to find huge savings because the cost of everything the department is already doing will have become so much more expensive by then,» said one government official. In October, the FT reported that the Treasury had asked HS2’s management team to identify potential cuts or «scope reductions» to the high-speed line. Transport department officials have subsequently begun work on Project Silverlight aimed at fi...

Doubt on CS's collateral.

Credit Suisse provided an emergency $140mn loan to Greensill Capital based partly on invoices to companies that deny ever doing the business stated on the documents. The Swiss bank provided the loan in October 2020, less than five months before the collapse of Greensill, a supply chain finance firm that counted former British prime minister David Cameron as a senior adviser. Invoices issued by metals magnate Sanjeev Gupta’s Liberty Commodities and sold to Greensill formed part of the collateral for the loan, according to documents seen by the Financial Times and people familiar with the transaction. Yet several of the parties named on the invoices have told the FT they did no business with Liberty. GFG has consistently denied any wrongdoing. Credit Suisse’s loan had a clause dictating that the collateral value had to be equal to or greater than the $140mn borrowed. The terms of the debt agreement only allowed invoices on Green-sill’s balance sheet to count towards this tally if t...

Tax cut

Sterling tumbled against the dollar to below $1 . 09 , hitting its lowest point since 1985 , after UK chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng unveiled a £45bn debt-financed tax-cutting package that sparked a historic increase in borrowing costs . Kwarteng’s political and economic gamble includes the biggest set of tax cuts for 50 years , with the end of the 45p additional rate for the highest earners as well as a sharp reduction in levies on dividends . But concern over the amount of debt required to finance the tax cuts triggered a frenetic day of trading that raised doubts on whether Britain’s new economic approach was sustainable . «Britain will be remembered for having pursued the worst macroeconomic policies of any major country in a long time» . Kwarteng has staked the political fortunes of the Conservative party on the bet that the radical tax cuts and deregulation will raise Britain’s sluggish growth rate to 2 . 5 per cent . «This is a new appr...

Search This Blog