NTDC chief upbeat on plugging gaps for timely projects’ execution

LAHORE: The newly appointed managing director of National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) has expressed commitment to plugging the gaps and addressing the issues hindering early completion of several important transmission projects.

Talking to The News, Zafar Abbas, who was appointed by the NTDC board of directors as the new MD, said, “The missing links in execution of various projects are being sorted out to ensure their timely completion. It is the need of the hour to address these issues to augment the transmission system.”

He admitted that long delays in execution have neutralised the efficacy of certain projects. For example, he added, construction of 220kV Dera Murad Jamali and 500kV New Lahore Grid Station started in 2011 and 2012, respectively, but both were yet to be completed due to one reason or another.

“We have taken measures to take stock of the situation. We are now confident that both these projects will be operational by October this year,” he added. To put the decision making process on a fast track, a trans-functional team comprising senior general managers has been set up lately. After empowering them with certain management tools, the team has been asked to meet regularly and take prompt action in order to make the decision making process smooth, he added.

“I don’t want to look into everything unnecessarily. I think it is a better way to truly work as a team while assigning the task to different levels of managers,” Abbas said. Talking about another important project, he said, timely power evacuation from 1,320MW Port Qasim Power Project, which is part of CPEC, has been a challenge for us. The power project is expected to be commissioned on December 2017. However, there have been delays in execution of transmission line.

“The earlier expected completion of the project was June 2017. Now with a proactive approach, we are in the process of completing the project within a few weeks,” the new MD said. Zafar Abbas said the federal government was committed to eradicate load shedding and NTDC was mandated to connect 9,000-10,000MW to the national grid from different power plants during the current financial year.

NTDC has already provided transmission interconnection facilities to many power projects with their total installed capacity of 6,164MW. These include Bhikki 1,200MW, Haveli Bahadur Shah 1,200MW, Balloki 1,200MW, Sahiwal 1,320MW, Chashma C3 and C4 680MW, Patrind 147MW, Renolia 17MW and Quaid-e-Azam Solar Park, 400MW. For the remaining 600MW, a 220kV transmission line and associated substation has already been completed, he added. During the current financial year, the MD said, several 500kV and 220kV transmission projects were at their advanced stages of construction. For instance, he maintained, out of the total 1,123km of 500kV lines of various projects, construction progress varies between from 60-90 percent.

These lines include Neelum-Jhelum to Domeli, 3rd Circuit Jamshoro-Moro-Dadu-Rahim Yar Khan, Balloki to New Lahore, Haveli Bahadur Shah of 2nd interconnection and Port Qasim to the connection point at NKI to Jamshoro line.

Transmission line to interconnect Neelum-Jhelum Hydro power project is 90 percent complete and it would be energised well before the CoD of the power house, Abbas said.

Similarly, the MD said, out of the total 614km of 220 kV transmission lines of multiple projects, construction progress ranged from 62-98 percent. These projects included Lal Suhanra, Jhimpir-TM Khan, Uch-Sibbi and Gharo-Jhimpir.

“Replacement of the existing 220kV transmission line to evacuate Tarbela Ext-4 (1,410MW) power is currently under progress and will be completed well before completion of the power plant extension project,” he added.

Abbas said the NTDC has substantially reinforced its network with 2,000MVA transformation capacity through additions of power transformers in the newly constructed 220kV Chishtian and 220kV Gujrat substations along with augmentation of three 250MVA transformers each at 500kV Shiekh Muhammadi, 220kV Burhan and 220kV Ludewala substations.

“All these additions and expansions have greatly contributed to alleviate the existing transmission system constraints and provided adequate room for serving additional demand on the system,” he said, and expressed the hope that power outages from the country would end as per target set by the government.