ISLAMABAD: National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) has accused National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) of failing to ensure the evacuation of cheap electricity from Thar.
The Annual Performance Reports (APRs) for the FY 2021-22, submitted by NTDC and K-Electric, were reviewed and analysed in light of the performance parameters such as system duration of interruption, system frequency of interruption, energy not served (ENS), loss of supply incidents along with its financial impact, amount allowed for improvement, voltage and frequency violation limits prescribed under the PSTR, and highest and lowest voltage recorded at NTDC 500 kV and 220 kV grid stations under normal system conditions
According to the report, over the years NTDC has been reporting constraints in transmission system as one of the major causes of under-utilization of efficient power plants. During the reported period, at several instances, the transmission system remained incapable to transmit the electric power from efficient power plants to load centres to meet demand. NTDC still requires a longer period to fix the existing constraints which are causing the operation of power plants in violation of EMO.
The Regulator maintains that NTDC needs to take measures/ steps to remove constraints in its network to off-take electric power from existing power plants, as well as, upcoming power projects in light of the Transmission System Expansion Plan (TSEP) duly integrated with the plan for induction of new generation plants in accordance with Indicative Generation Capacity Expansion Plan (IGCEP). Similarly, the data pertaining to system constraints revealed that most of the grid stations are overloaded.
Evacuating electricity from Thar: Nepra grills NTDC for not completing transmission lines
The interruption was witnessed around 0.15 hours (9 minutes) in the year 2021-22 indicating 15.4% increase as compared to preceding year, i.e., 0.13 hours.
It was also observed that after the blackout of 9th January 2021, NTDC was directed to make certain improvements in its transmission network for the improvement of system reliability, stability and security of supply.
However, recent events and multiple outages in NTDC’s network during the FY 2021-22 indicate that adequate measures have not been taken by NTDC in this regard. Number of voltage violations for NTDC was 185,497 for the year 2021-22 that indicates 54.5% increase as compared to 120,092 violations in the preceding year.
Nepra claims it has allowed a substantial amount to NTDC for removal of system constraints that has a considerable financial impact on account of operation of expensive plants due to transmission system constraints. NTDC’s progress on removal of system constraints is slow and around 11 projects are delayed.
NTDC needs to complete it on priority to avoid any adverse impacts on the power sector.
NTDC was not able to complete the interconnection facilities for evacuation of power from new power plants as per the approved design and within the stipulated time period and thus caused under-utilization of the available capacity.
It has also been observed that progress on evacuation projects is slow due to which cheap electricity located in Thar is compromised. Such as the absence of dedicated transmission line for Shanghai Electric Company Limited (SECL) plant, leads to load curtailment of Engro Power Thar Limited (EPTL) and Thar Energy Limited (TEL) due to inadequate transmission capacity. NTDC needs to complete its evacuation projects on priority so that any adverse impact on the power sector may be avoided.
K-Electric: Nepra has appreciated KE for improvements in its system, saying that system duration of interruption was witnessed as 0 Hours which shows 100% reduction as compared to preceding year’s average of 0.06 Hours (4 minutes).
System frequency of interruption was observed as zero outages per circuit. It indicates a decrease of 100% over the previous year, i.e., 0.02. In order to gauge system security, the estimates of total Energy Not Served (ENS) during the reported period has been analyzed. The total ENS as reported by KE is zero.
However, KE has reported 46 voltage violations under normal condition that indicates 100% increase with respect to preceding year.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
Comments
Comments are closed.