Pakistan is facing financing gap for CASA-1000 project, which may be filled by additional financing from the World Bank (WB). This was shared on the WB website: "currently, there is a small financing gap for Pakistan and Kyrgyz Republic that may be filled by additional financing from the World Bank once the final costs have been established after receipt of the bid prices". CASA-1000 will put in place the contractual and institutional arrangements, and the transmission infrastructure, to facilitate the export of 1,300 megawatts (MW) of already available surplus electricity in the summer months from Kyrgyz Republic and Tajikistan to Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The Bank''s website further sates that CASA-1000 will alleviate electricity shortages in Pakistan during the peak summer season when demand is highest and help reduce the country''s dependency on costly, polluting oil-based power generation. Security is a key issue for the project, both during construction and operation, the World Bank maintains adding, "Security issues relate primarily to landmines, sabotage and theft of equipment. All country governments have agreed to provide adequate security to contractor''s personnel and goods. Each country has prepared a security management plan for both the construction and operation phases of the line in their respective areas of ownership. Provision has been kept for payment for any work related to landmines or any additional specific security arrangement to be made by contractors. The community support programs being developed for local communities living near the line for the whole CASA-1000 Project corridor will serve as an incentive for communities to preserve its safe operation. In case of any damage to the line, measures are designed to limit outages".
The World Bank''s response to a query was that the original design of the project envisaged a High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) line of about 117km in Tajikistan, 562km in Afghanistan and 71km in Pakistan. However the revised configuration would feature two converter stations in Tajikistan and Pakistan with a separate HVDC back-to-back connection in Afghanistan on an existing 220 kV AC line between Tajikistan and Afghanistan.
The location of the HVDC terminals in Tajikistan will remain in Sangtuda, while in Pakistan it will be moved from Peshawar to Nowshera, a more secure location. The exact location of the back-to-back station in Afghanistan is being finalised. The estimated project cost, including contingencies, taxes and interest during construction, is US $1.17 billion, including transmission infrastructure-$801 million, project implementation support- $30 million, community support program- $70 million, environmental and social cost- $20 million, contingencies- $145 million and taxes and IDC- $104 million.
The agreements reached include open access to the transmission infrastructure to attract sale of power from other Central Asian countries and Russia, when CASA-1000 power is not flowing through the system (ie from October 1 to April 30). The infrastructure can handle power flows in both directions, so all countries are potentially able to import power when it is available from power sources connected to the system.
The World Bank further maintained that Afghanistan, Pakistan and Tajikistan have issued Government Guarantees. The Kyrgyz Republic guarantee is due by July 7, 2016 as per the Master Agreement. The Bank has received formal requests from the four countries for IFI guarantees to cover $40 million risk for two importers and the same for two exporters; this requires additional IDA contributions at 25% of guaranteed coverage required from each country. The construction of the project will take about three years from the date of the contracting of the HVDC Converter Station package (expected in Q2 of calendar year 2017). Other activities will be implemented in tandem.