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A6 WORLD NEWS
Tuesday 24 January 2023

Lights out in Pakistan as energy-saving move backfires

By MUNIR AHMED and government facilities,
Associated Press backup generators kicked
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Most in.
of Pakistan was left with- By late afternoon Monday,
out power Monday as an Dastgir told reporters at
energy-saving measure by another press conference
the government backfired. that Prime Minister Shahbaz
The outage spread panic Sharif ordered a probe into
and raised questions about the outage.
the cash-strapped gov- “We are hoping that the
ernment’s handling of the supply of electricity will be
country’s economic crisis. fully restored tonight,” he
It all started when electric- said.
ity was turned off during Karachi, the country’s larg-
low usage hours overnight est city and economic hub,
to conserve fuel across the was without power as were
country, officials said, leav- other key cities, such as
ing technicians unable to Quetta, Peshawar and La-
boot up the system all at hore.
once after daybreak. The In Lahore, a closing notice
outage was reminiscent of was posted on the Orange
a massive blackout in Janu- Line metro stations, with rail
ary 2021, attributed at the workers guarding the sites
time to a technical fault in Shopkeepers and workers wait for electric power at a market following a power breakdown and trains parked on the
Pakistan’s power genera- across the country, in Lahore, Pakistan, Monday, Jan. 23, 2023. Associated Press rails. It was unknown when
tion and distribution system. the metro system would be
Many major cities, includ- Earlier, the nationwide elec- and tried to reassure the tems” Sunday night, Dastgir restored.
ing the capital of Islam- tricity breakdown left many nation that power would said. When engineers tried Imran Rana, a spokesper-
abad, and remote towns in this country of some be fully restored within the to turn the systems back son for Karachi’s power
and villages across Pakistan 220 million people without next 12 hours. on, a “fluctuation in volt- supply company, said the
were without electricity for drinking water as pumps According to the minister, age” was observed, which government’s priority was
more than 12 hours before powered by electricity electricity usage typically “forced engineers to shut to restore power to strate-
engineers partially restored failed to work. Schools, hos- goes down overnight dur- down the power grid” sta- gic facilities, including hos-
power across much of the pitals, factories and shops ing winter unlike summer tions one by one. pitals and airports.
country. were without power amid months when Pakistanis Dastgir insisted the outage Internet-access advocacy
As the outage continued the harsh winter weather. turn to air conditioning, did not constitute a major group NetBlocks.org said
into Monday night, authori- Energy Minister Khurram seeking a respite from the crisis and that electricity network data showed a
ties deployed additional Dastgir told local media heat. was being restored in phas- significant decline in inter-
police at markets around Monday that engineers “As an economic measure, es. In many places and key net access in Pakistan that
the country to provide se- were working to restore we temporarily shut down businesses and institutions, was attributed to the pow-
curity. power across the country our power generation sys- including hospitals, military er outage. q

Study: Puerto Rico should go solar to meet clean energy goal

By DÁNICA COTO wind generators, Puerto The two-year study be- a disintegrating power grid Ríos, said that while the
Associated Press Rico should aim to reach gan last year after the U.S. following decades of ne- government has helped
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) its clean-energy goals by pledged to help modernize glect and lack of mainte- some businesses transition
— A U.S. government study installing solar panels on Puerto Rico’s disintegrating nance. The island’s current to renewable energy, she
has determined that with all suitable rooftops, along power grid by looking at power generation system is hasn’t been able to get a
little room on the island for with airports, brownfields wind and solar resources on 97% based on fossil fuels. response about how com-
large-scale solar farms or and industrial areas. the island, land availabil- More than 600 participants munities might be able to
ity and power consump- joined the webinar, includ- obtain financial help.
tion. Government officials ing solar companies eager “We want to have a solar
vowed to ramp up from 3% to secure a stake in up- community, but there is
to 40% renewable energy coming projects and dis- (no) program available for
by 2025, and 60% by 2040. gruntled Puerto Ricans who us!” she wrote.
“This is so utterly important,” questioned the reality of A senior official at the U.S.
said Jennifer Granholm, implementing solar panels Department of Energy said
U.S. Energy Secretary, dur- on an island where more the $1 billion approved by
ing a webinar Monday to than 40% of the population U.S. Congress in Decem-
talk about the study’s pre- lives below the poverty line. ber to help restore Puerto
liminary results. “We have “These systems are too Rico’s grid is not sufficient.
set out to cut through bu- costly, and truly hardly any- U.S. President Joe Biden
reaucracy and get federal one can afford them be- had sought $3 billion, and
funding moving.” cause it’s a debt impossible federal lawmakers had re-
Amid the threat of power- to pay over many years,” quested $5 billion for solar
A technician installs a solar energy system at a home July 24, ful hurricanes, Puerto Rico wrote one participant rooftop panels and storage
2018, in Adjuntas, Puerto Rico. has suffered from chronic named Wanda Trinidad in installations.q
Associated Press
power outages blamed on the chat. Another, Wanda