Pakistan’s power woes refuse to die! No transmission lines to evacuate increased power

Pakistan added up 10700 MW of electricity in its national grid during 2013 to 2018 but country’s woes remain especially in its backward province of Balochistan.
Senators from this rugged province say the province is undergoing a spell of load shedding spread over 12 to 14 hours in a day. They believe the National Transmission Dispatch Company (NTDC) is responsible for such a situation in their province.
Pakistan’s Power Division is fully agreed with the senators. One of the officials who briefed the Senate’s Sub-Committee on Power said despite the availability of power in the system, they could not evacuate it because transmission lines were not available.
Over 22000 MW of electricity is available but the transmission system is able to transfer only 19800 MW of electricity.
Interestingly enough, there was no parallel action required to lay the transmission line as we lack proper planning in the country. He told the moot that Power Division was fully aware of the delay in transmission line projects and had communicated to then MD NTDC to complete the projects in time.
The committee led by senator Agha Shahzaib Durrani deplored the performance of the NTDC saying power losses, unprecedented load shedding and malfunction of the system had made the lives of the people of Balochistan miserable.
Joint secretary Power Division Zargham Khan told the committee that the government was trying to ensure an increased supply of electricity to the consumers in the recent summer season as 90 percent constraints in transmitting electricity have been addressed after removing previous managing director National Transmission and Dispatch Company (NTDC).
The national electric power regulatory authority (Nepra) had issued show cause notice during the tenure of previous managing director NTDC due to delay in 16 projects.
He revealed that the delay in transmission line projects was leading them to face a threat of multimillion dollars penalty on account of capacity payments to be charged by power plants.
The government was facing a threat of 0.7 million dollar per day penalty due to delay in a transmission line to interconnect with 1320 MW Port Qasim power plant, the official maintained.
Now, 16 transmission line projects have been completed and the government is able to lay transmission line on time to connect with Port Qasim power plant. – ISLAMABAD: ER Report