Nepra grants power transmission licence to Sindh

KARACHI: The National Electric Regulatory Authority (Nepra) has granted transmission licence to Sindh Transmission and Dispatch Company to act as the provincial grid firm, a document revealed on Wednesday.

The document provided by the company showed that the scope for provincial grid company includes operation of transmission lines for the Keti Bandar-Gharo Jhimpir wind corridor, deployment of a combination of major and micro transmission grid model for wind corridor for initial supply of electricity to bulk consumers in Nooriabad industrial area, K-Electric and other bulk buyers.

The proposed model may comprise construction of 500 kV 4-bundle double circuit transmission line along wind corridor, 500 kV junction grid in Nooriabad and further transmission of power to K-Electric-Gharo, Gadap, Maymar or Hyderabad and Sukkur electric supply companies grids for onward power.

It is also mandated to construct new transmission lines of 132 kV and 220 kV in Jhimpir area for evacuation of power from wind power plants, construction of new grid stations of 132kV and 220kV in Jhimpir area for evacuation of power from wind power plants.

Moreover, the provincial grid company may construct two 132kV grid stations and one 132kV double circuit transmission line of 25 kilometres approximately to supply power to pumping stations 1 and 2 of Karachi Water and Sewerage Board K-IV power project.

The company said proper feasibility study for each project would be carried out in consultation with all the relevant stakeholders.

Nepra said the ultimate dream of safe, secure, reliable and cheaper supply of energy/electricity for the end consumer could only be realised if the complete supply chain of electric power, including generation, transmission, distribution and supply is complete and robust.

The authority said a lot of investment has been made in the generation segment of the supply chain of electric power in the previous years. However, the required level of investment in the remaining segments of transmission, distribution and supply could not be made. Resultantly, the full benefit of the addition in capacity in the generation segment has not been achieved.

“This is primarily due to the fact that transmission, distribution and supply segments are mainly controlled by the public sector and have their limitation to arrange the required amount of funds to carry out the expansion required in this regard,” Nepra said in a document.

Nepra further said there is huge scope for investment in the transmission segment of the electric power sector of the country. Accordingly, Nepra approved the grant of licence for the province for 30 years as infrastructure to be laid under the proposed scheme of arrangement has a useful life of 30-50 years.

Nepra said determining tariff, rate and charges are the sole prerogative of the authority. Accordingly, Nepra directed the transmission company to file a petition for determining of use of system charge of its transmission line project as stipulated in the relevant rules.