Daily Times

Despite sufficient generation capacity being added to the National Grid, which is controlled and operated by National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC), Pakistan is continuously facing enormous challenges in the electricity sector, including generation availability, transmission reliability, distribution losses and the high cost of electricity.

Resultantly, government’s efforts and claims for eliminating load shedding are not being fully materialised. People are still suffering from load shedding and paying a high price for electricity. As the weather has started getting warmer, the shortfall in the supply of electricity is becoming more and more evident. The problem is not as simple, even if there is sufficient supply of electricity from the generating plants, a reliable network of high power transmission lines and adequate regional distribution systems are required to provide a continuous supply of electricity to the consumers. Such a complex sector requires profound leadership and capable team for sustainable energy future of the country.

Government’s primary focus was to substantially increase electricity generation capacity and more than 30,000 MW generation projects are being incorporated into the NTDC transmission system, which are in different stages of implementation in the private sector. Correspondingly, NTDC has been tasked to not only build generation interconnection transmission lines but also expand its transmission network to reliably transfer power from new generation sources to different load centres across the country.

This gigantic task is very challenging for the existing team with the current mindset and processes for implementing new transmission projects as historically, NTDC has not delivered such a large volume of work in such a short time. Being a public-sector organisation, NTDC must follow long and cumbersome procurement processes and at the same time, the existing team not only lacks capacity but also training and skills, especially in areas of planning, engineering and project execution. Distribution Companies (DISCOs) are also facing similar challenges that are mandated to develop and operate distribution networks for reliable a supply of electricity to consumers.

Government’s efforts to eliminate load shedding are not being fully materialised. People are still suffering from load shedding and paying a high price for the electricity. As the weather has started getting warmer, the shortfall in the supply of electricity is becoming more and more evident

The NTDC may be subjected to Liquidated Damages in millions of dollars for not providing Point of Connection timely or curtailing power generation due to the constrained transmission network but these challenges have not been fully realised and understood at the board of directors of the NTDC and ministry of water and power level. Thereby, no serious effort has been made to equip the NTDC with profound leadership and in building capacity and capability across various functions to make the NTDC capable to meet the enormous challenges ahead. The issue at hand can’t be dealt with as a routine matter.

In the recent past, the ministry and the board of Directors at the NTDC have taken short-term measures or made stop-gap arrangements in running its leadership affairs which further aggravated challenges for NTDC.

For instance, regular appointments for two of the top positions at NTDC i.e. Managing Director and Deputy Managing Director were not made since July 2017, which are to be filled following a thorough competitive hiring process. However, these two positions were advertised on the same day in February 2018 and the due date for applications was March 21, 2018. Interviews for the Deputy Managing Director (DMD) position are being conducted first, which are scheduled in the second week of April 2018.

This is strange since the new Managing Director, the team leader of the organisation, should have been hired first so that the incumbent could have fully participated in the selection process of his new team members according to law. There are other peculiarities when one compares the present and past advertisements for the same DMD position.

Basic qualifications of candidates in the present advertisement for the DMD position have been significantly reduced by reducing education and experience requirements while increasing maximum age limit. The educational qualification requirement is reduced to BSc Engineering degree only and preference for an MBA degree holder has been eliminated. The experience qualification of executive/senior management experience has been reduced from 7 years to 3 years while the maximum age limit has been increased from 57 to 60 years. The DMD position is one of the highest technical and managerial positions at the NTDC.

Keeping the above in view, it appears that the hiring of a new DMD is compromised and biased in favour of someone, as there shouldn’t be any rush to hire a new DMD ahead of the appointment of the new MD, whose position was advertised at the same time. NTDC’s quick pursuit of hiring a DMD and giving relaxations in the qualification criteria raise suspicions while this position remained vacant for about a year, despite identification/selection of a couple of very good candidates during the previous hiring process. NTDC’s Board of Directors must provide answers to many related questions, especially why a DMD is being hired prior to the hiring of his immediate boss (Managing Director) without his consent and approval who will actually be responsible for the overall performance of the NTDC.

At present, the power sector circular debt has surmounted to about Rs 1000 billion and this amount is increasing day by day. No serious efforts are being taken for corrective measures while we are engulfed in favouritism, defying merit and doing away with the national interest. The BoD and senior management have to apprise themselves of newer technologies and enhance their exposure to the international best practices in the utility industry to deal with new challenges of transmission development and project management. The Hiring Committee must possess credentials and relevant experience for interviewing the most important positions in NTDC. These positions bind the people of Pakistan in 30 years generation procurement contracts or even more in case of hydropower plants. Even one rupee difference in the electricity tariff translates to billions of rupees over the lifetime of the projects.

Both MD and DMD positions could prove to be the most detrimental to the country. A wrong step by any of these individuals could kill country’s industry and its growth for decades rather for many generations to come. If we just look back at our textile industry, we severely damaged it with high price and non-availability of electricity at this hour. It is feared that we may kill many manufacturing and processing industries by making electricity available but at a very high price for which their products may not remain competitive in the local and international markets. Therefore, the NTDC’s Board of Directors must do a good job in hiring and appointing the new incumbents on merit so that the new team can enable the organisation to take on the future challenges.

The writer is a journalist currently based in Canada. He can be reached at rana.tanver@gmail.com and @RanaTanver

Published in Daily Times, April 13^th 2018.