Caretaker Federal Minister for Energy Muhammad Ali emphasized the importance of increasing the capacity of electricity transmission system to align it with the country’s electricity generation capacity.
He stated this while chairing a meeting of National Transmission and Despatch Company Limited (NTDC) Headquarters at WAPDA House in Lahore today.
During the meeting, the Managing Director NTDC, Engr. Dr. Rana Abdul Jabbar Khan briefed the meeting about the mandate, functions and performance of the company.
He apprised that NTDC’s capability to reliably evacuate power is currently around 27,000 MWs and it is projected to increase to more than 30,000 MWs within the next three years.
MD NTDC highlighted NTDC’s recent achievements in completing two critical transmission line projects, including the 500 kV Thar-Matiari Transmission Line and 132 kV Polan-Jiwani Transmission Line, within record time. He also gave briefing regarding the ongoing projects such as the CASA-1000 transmission line, Suki Kinari and Dasu transmission line projects.
Speaking on the occasion, the caretaker Energy Minister expressed satisfaction with the company’s performance and emphasized the need to take immediate steps to increase the capacity of power transmission system.
He said that international financial institutions like the World Bank and Asian Development Bank are willing to provide funds for power transmission projects.
He urged the promotion of local manufacturing of essential equipment for transmission projects and assured that foreign exchange issues, hindering equipment imports, for NTDC projects would be resolved soon.
The Federal Energy Minister highlighted the importance of taking proactive measures to avoid electricity blackouts during the winter season. He stressed on the timely completion of the SCADA-III up-gradation project.
Caretaker Federal Minister for Energy Muhammad Ali said that under constructed hydel projects of Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) will play an effective role in adding cheap electricity in the national grid system.
He said that there is a dire need to take measures to increase the capacity building of the power supply system.
The Federal Minister was briefed that with the help of under constructed WAPDA projects till 2029, the production of electricity will increase upto 19500 megawatt.
Meanwhile, the Federal Minister for Energy Muhammad Ali also received briefings from LESCO, NESPAK and PITC.
Federal Minister directed the LESCO team to improve recoveries from consumers and to expedite the campaign against power theft.
The caretaker Energy Minister Muhammad Ali also lauded the ongoing crackdown by LESCO against electricity thieves.
He said that LESCO’s performance in tackling electricity theft and recovery is far better than that of other distribution companies (DISCOs). He said that those involved in electrical theft are national culprits and directed the officials to deal with them iron hands.
The Energy Minister also urged NESPAK management to speed up work on their projects. He assured that issues related to imports of equipment will be resolved.
He also directed PITC to develop robust system for timely resolution of consumer complaints.
