A US Agency for International Development (USAID) delegation led by USAID Energy Office Director Melissa Knight visited the National Transmission and Dispatch Company (NTDC) in Lahore on Tuesday. The USAID team met with NTDC General Manager Planning and Power Nisar Bazmi to discuss the current state of the national energy grid and to check the progress of the USAID-funded Power System Analysis Training programme.
USAID's energy sector projects in Pakistan are a part of the US government's commitment to increasing power generation, improving energy efficiency and transmission, and improving fuel supply infrastructure and policy reform efforts in the country. The Power System Analysis Training programme is taking place under USAID's Energy Policy Project (EPP). The programme trains engineers in analysing and proposing solutions to bottlenecks in the power distribution system making it more efficient. More efficient energy distribution will ultimately result in a reduction in the energy shortage.
The NTDC General Manager Planning and Power briefed the USAID team on the improved capacity and performance of the employees trained under the Power System Analysis Training programme. He remarked that the efforts of USAID to build the capacity of power sector entities were greatly appreciated.
He said the training equipped the participants with a deeper understanding of power system analysis to resolve system problems in the transmission network now and in the future. The USAID delegation and NTDC officials also met with staff members who successfully completed the training. Ms Knight thanked the trained staff for their participation in the programme and congratulated them on their improved performance. Others present at the meeting included USAID Senior Energy Advisor Rosario Calderon, USAID Energy Policy Project Chief of Staff Saeed Anwar, and Senior Advisors Transmission Systems Tariq Qazi and Gerrie Vermeulen.