What happened

Exceptionally heavy Eid al-Adha rainfall flooded parts of Central Power Generation Company Limited's Guddu plant. Water ingress into the 747 MW combined-cycle block's steam-turbine area caused a short circuit and fire around the ST-16 generator. The generator tripped on differential protection at approximately 01:15; hydrogen-leak detectors activated, and the fire damaged its output terminals, star point, busbar-related equipment and auxiliaries. Early reports said 747 MW immediately left the national system, estimated losses at roughly Rs15 billion and predicted repairs within about one month. Later regulatory filings found that ST-16's generator was damaged beyond repair and remained on forced outage far longer, leaving the block unable to operate in combined-cycle mode even when its two gas turbines ran in open cycle. No casualties were reported. News sources alleged that holiday staffing was absent and no usable extinguishers were available; later commentary described the fire system as out of operation. Those claims are retained as attributed allegations rather than established facts. A commissioned technical review identified short-circuiting from high moisture in generator leads, the potential-transformer panel and busbar pipes, while subsequent government scrutiny found that operation and maintenance did not follow international best practices. The event prompted inquiries, proposed action against responsible employees and later regulatory enforcement.

When cited sources give different casualty, damage or spill figures for this event, they’re reported side by side above rather than merged into one number. See how confidence levels work.