LAHORE: National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) Managing Director (MD) Manzoor Ahmad apprehended on Tuesday a delay of one year in completion of the Central Asia-South Asia power project, commonly known by the acronym CASA-1000, due to the suspension of funds for Afghanistan by the World Bank and USAID.
In an exclusive interview to Business Recorder, he said he had worked on the project back in 2018 and had placed orders for procurement of material to set up converter station and transmission line in Peshawar to connect the imported electricity from two central Asian states during the summer months.
The MD said the material for converter station and transmission line has arrived in Pakistan which would be installed once civil works concludes. The material is at a warehouse in Karachi, he added.
CASA-1000 is a $ 1.16 billion project currently under construction that will allow for the export of surplus hydroelectricity from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to Afghanistan and finally to Pakistan.
The project will allow for the export of 1,300 megawatts of electricity during the summer months when both Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan experience surplus electricity generation from hydroelectric dams. Transmission lines are designed to transmit 1,300 MW of electricity, with Afghanistan allotted 300 MW of electricity and Pakistan 1000 MW of electricity.
A 750km HVDC line will be constructed between Sangtuda, Tajikistan, and the city of Peshawar, Pakistan, via the Salang Pass and Kabul. In Peshawar, a 1,300 MW converter station will be built and connected to Pakistan’s electric grid. Pakistan has been burdened with additional expenditure on installing this station, which should have been part of the transmission project’s capital expenditure.
This cost penalty stands at $240 million, which is 20 percent of the project cost. The tariff agreed and approved by Nepra is 9.4 US cents. It is a take-or-pay project. Meanwhile, speaking about his vision as MD, he said, the 2021-23 plan of the outgoing MD would be implemented aggressively, which has been brought into the notice of prime minister.
“We will double the NTDC network in next five to 10 years,” he said.
“The existing transmission line has a capacity to transmit 25,000 megawatt electricity.”
He said the 132kV transmission line system of distribution companies (Discos) has both financial and technical constraints that hinder the downward dispersal of electricity to consumers.
Discos keep supplying electricity through two to three transmission lines from grid stations while keeping rest of the five to six lines inoperative, he said. However, he made it clear that the vision of zero load shedding in five Discos of Punjab before the next summer season would be implemented in letter and spirit.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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