Sindh applies for licence to lay 85KM transmission line

KARACHI: Sindh government has applied for a licence with the federal government to lay 85-kilometre long transmission network from Nooriabad industrial zone to Karachi in a bid to supply 104 megawatts of electricity to K-Electric, an official said.
Sindh Transmission and Dispatch Company (STDC), a wholly-owned company of Sindh government, is seeking a special purpose transmission licence from the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) to lay a transmission network from Nooriabad to K-Electric’s grid station in Karachi at an estimated cost of Rs1.3 billion, the official said.
The provincial government has established STDC to evacuate a cumulative 104MW of electricity to be generated from two gas-run power projects being set up at the Nooriabad industrial zone.
For these projects, NEPRA has already accorded licences to two specially established companies, Sindh Nooriabad Power Company (Pvt) Ltd and Sindh Nooriabad Power Company Phase-II (Pvt) Ltd, for generating 52.10MW of electricity each.
“These will be the first-ever power projects to be executed by a province under the public-private partnership mode,” the official said.
The provincial government has initiated gas supply agreement with the Sui Southern Gas Company for supplying 10 million metric cubic feet/day to each power project for 25 years.
The official said power generation is expected in early of 2016.
K-Electric Limited will be the power purchaser of the upcoming projects.
“The official said the government will soon apply for the tariffs to NEPRA. Total cost of the projects will be determined once the tariffs are approved,” he added.
Initially, STDC is considering a power dispatch line of approximately 85KM from the industrial area to KDA Scheme 33 Grid Station of K-Electric in Karachi.
The official said the government has selected an engineering company Technoman Kinetics (Pvt.) to lay a double circuit 132kv transmission line.
“The managers of STDC have this appetite to expand and would directly or indirectly carry on all or any of the businesses relating to the entire energy generation and supply chain,” the official said.
“For this purpose the company can raise funds by means of local and foreign currency loans from scheduled banks, industrial banks and other specialised institutions.”