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Fun facts · a guessing game

How well do you know Pakistan's grid?

Guess six numbers about the country's electricity. Drag the slider, lock in your answer, and see how close you get. Everything here is real.

0/6not started
0/6not started

Level I

The Sun

Solar power is booming in Pakistan.

Your guess

How much solar power did Pakistan buy in 2024?

12.5GW
025
0GW

Rooftop solar is almost as big as all the power stations

But the grid can only see the big power stations, not the rooftops.

Estimate: about 38 GW of rooftop solar vs 41 GW of big stations.

Your guess

How many solar homes have a battery?

0% in a year

Battery buying jumped in one year

People are adding their own batteries to get through the evening.

Source: battery import data.

One region will use less power next year

Quetta area now1,034 MW
Quetta area next year660 MW

Farmers there are switching to solar, so they need less from the grid.

Measured: NTDC demand forecast, 2026-35.

Level II

The Evening

The grid struggles the most at night.

The big picture

People use the most power at night

noon11pm

This is Pakistan's busiest power day, 20 June 2025. The peak hits at 11 at night, long after the sun and all the solar panels have gone quiet.

Measured: NPCC hourly data, 2024-25 peak day.

Your guess

Of the year's 50 busiest hours, how many were between 7pm and 1am?

25of 50
050

Your guess

When it gets 1°C hotter, how much more power does the country use?

500MW
01,000

Level III

The Wires

The power lines have their own problems.

Your guess

At the evening peak, how full is the busiest power line between provinces?

50% full
0100
0% used

The biggest power line is barely used

Pakistan's newest, largest line runs at about a third of what it can carry.

Source: NTDC operational reports.

0%

Most of the biggest transformers overheated

Two out of three of the largest transformers got overloaded last year.

Measured: NEPRA industry report, 2025.

0MW

A giant dam sits in a tiny area

Tarbela Dam can make ten times more power than its local area can use.

Model: plant-to-area match; measured area peaks.

0stations

Planning for stations that don't exist yet

About 300 future power stations are on the plan, with no power today.

Derived: NTDC forecast, stations by 2035.

Level IV

The Problems

Where power and money go missing.

Your guess

In the Peshawar area, how much electricity is lost or never paid for?

25%
050

The grid sells less power than before

Grid sales, 2022125 TWh
Grid sales, 2025111 TWh

Even as the population grew. People moved to rooftop solar and generators.

Source: NEPRA sales data, 2022 to 2025.

0MW

One city uses a sixth of the country's power

Lahore alone uses about 17% of all the power, out of 160 districts.

Derived: district demand, 2024-25 peaks.

4 minutes to break, 20 hours to fix

Bringing the grid back20+ hours
The grid going dark~4 minutes

In the 2023 blackout, the whole country went dark in minutes and came back over a day.

Source: NEPRA report, Jan 2023 blackout.

0second

The grid can fail in one second

In the 2021 blackout, power at Guddu dropped from full to zero in under a second.

Source: NEPRA report, Jan 2021 blackout.

Your result

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All numbers come from Pakistan's grid data and official reports (NPCC, NEPRA and NTDC). Nothing here is made up.