NTDC needs long-delayed overhaul to meet targets

Has to complete 35 years of work in just three years

LAHORE: The National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) is striving to lay transmission lines to connect with under-construction power projects by 2018, but to achieve this target, the company needs a long-ignored overhaul in different departments, says NTDC Managing Director Fiaz A Chaudhry.

The transformation can help the company to deliver in a much more professional and efficient way than it currently is and add some more expertise, rules, manpower and hardware.

“We have to build a new team in the NTDC to make up for the brain drain occurred in previous years; the current team is too small to perform massive tasks ahead and is doing 15% more work than its capacity,” says Chaudhry while talking to The Express Tribune.

In the 69 years since independence, he points out, Pakistan has managed to construct 75 power projects with overall installed capacity of around 22,882 megawatts. However, from financial year 2015-16 to FY18, another 50 projects will be developed, which the NTDC has to connect to transmission lines by that year.

However, Chaudhry is concerned about the thin time frame for laying the new transmission lines.

He says the power generation projects have been awarded to different companies with completion deadline of three to four years. But to connect these projects with the national grid, the sole company is NTDC.

Its staff is compelled to lay new and upgrade old transmission lines by 2018, which in reality is a task that requires 35 years because of the size and human resources of the company.

“Over the years, the country has managed to establish only one state engineering services firm, which is Nespak (National Engineering Services of Pakistan),” he says, adding Nespak serves as the consultant for nearly every power project.

Chaudhry emphasises the need for producing more consultants and contractors at least for the NTDC in order to spark healthy competition and execute projects within the set time frame.

Hitting out at the procurement policy that comes with time constraints, he points out that the company has to go through various departments and processes to ensure transparency in a project.

“This process takes time and needs some modifications for speedy work; NTDC does not have much time to go through such a lengthy procurement process.”

By FY15, the company had managed to lay 550-kilovolt transmission lines over 5,187 kilometres and it was expected to build more lines over 1,940 km by FY18.

Apart from laying new transmission lines, the company has to upgrade its entire system to provide support for an additional load of around 10,000MW, which is expected to be added to the national grid by 2018.

“It is not only the matter of overhauling the NTDC’s 550 and 220-kilovolt transmission system, power distribution companies will also have to upgrade and expand their 132-kilovolt transmission lines; if they fail, the issue will keep hurting the entire system,” Chaudhry says.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 23^rd, 2016.

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