Daily Times

KARACHI: The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) revealed on Friday that undue delay in execution of power projects by the National Transmission & Despatch Company (NTDC) caused $3.385 million losses to the national kitty.

“NTDC has been paid $3.385 million in respect of commitment charges due to delay in execution of power projects, which is a drain of public exchequer,” according to the authority. During the visit, NEPRA officials observed that most of the developmental work (of NTDC) was delayed, thus, the commitment charges were being paid due to delay in the execution of the projects.

In the report, NEPRA disclosed that the nine projects which are already delayed from their contractual completion date include 220kv Chishtian grid station, 220kv Vehari grid station extension, 220kv Gujrat grid station, 500kv New Lahore grid station and 220kv Gujrat grid station, 500kv Rahim Yar Khan grid station, 500kv Shikarpur grid station, 220kv Dera Murad Jamali grid station and installation of Static Var Compensators at 220kv New Kot Lakhpat grid station.

In its visit report, NEPRA said that the practice of extending the due date of commissioning of the projects of the national interest has to be discouraged and system constraints are posing serious threats to the system reliability. The National Power Control Centre (NPCC) up gradation project has been mishandled by NTDC and the SCADA project at the moment is short of at least 41 to 51 Remote Terminal Units (RTUs).

SCADA system with existing number of RTUs seems in sufficient for real time monitoring of power system or proper load flow studies at NPCC. “The interconnection arrangements for under mentioned power generation projects are behind schedule and cannot be commissioned before the expected commissioning of power houses. This will cause power evacuation problems.”

Interim arrangement for Jhimpir & Gharo wind clusters which was expected to be commissioned by March 2016 will not be ample to evacuate almost 500 MW of power from wind power plants that are expected to be commissioned by July 2016. Moreover, the completion of interim arrangement by March 2016 is also not visible. Commissioning of 500 kV Shikarpur grid station seems to be delayed from expected completion date of March 2016 and the system reliability will continue to persist in this winter due to absence of 500 kV Shikarpur grid station, added NEPRA.