ISLAMABAD: The federal government Wednesday shared its investment plans with the provincial governments aimed at improving transmission and distribution systems to supply electricity after addition of 10,000 MW electricity in the system.

The meeting was convened in the light of directions issued by the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in the National Economic Council (NEC) and Council of Common Interests (CCI) after complaints from the Provincial Chief Ministers. Minister for Water and Power, Khawaja Asif presided over the meeting. Minister of State for Water and Power, Abid

Sher Ali and Secretary Yousaf Naseem Khokhar were also present in the meeting. The issue of system constraint especially in Sindh, KPK and Balochistan came under discussion.

The meeting took in-depth view of the present expansion and augmentation of the national transmission and distribution system. The meeting was briefed by the Managing Director NTDC regarding new projects that are in various phases of completion to generate the required energy with the induction of new generation facilities by the end of this year and start of 2018.

Discos also briefed the meeting regarding their work in improvement of distribution network. The meeting was apprised that in all the distribution companies’ work has been carried out to identify bottlenecks and solid steps have been taken to remove these. It was apprised that in PESCO, IESCO, GEPCO, LESCO, FESCO, MEPCO and HESCO more than 99% of the bottlenecks and constraints have been removed. In SEPCO and QESCO the work is in progress and by the end of current year their constraints will also be removed.

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah came all the way from Karachi to attend the meeting, whereas other provinces were represented by Planning and Energy Departments’ senior officials.

Chief Minister Sindh also held a separate meeting with the Minister for Water and Power, Khawaja Asif and explained to him the power woes of the province.

After the meeting Chief Minister Sindh told media that his province has reservations on a couple of matters which came under discussion.

In reply to a question, he said that in Sindh industry is also deprived of electricity and domestic consumers are facing load shedding of up to 18 hours.

The Chief Minister said that 450 MW, electricity has been generated from baggasse in Sindh but NTDC is showing reservations adding that Sindh is ready to purchase baggasse-fired electricity.

It was decided in the meeting that the matter relating to power purchase from baggasse based plants in Sindh and Punjab will be taken by the CPPA urgently.

Answering a question, Chief Minister said that NTDC has claimed that with the establishment of new power plants, NTDC system is unable to transmit increased capacity. He said the issues related to transmission also came under discussion.

“I hope electricity situation in Sindh will improve after this meeting,” he said.

Khawaja Asif, Minister for Water and Power, who hosted the meeting, said that provinces can also lay transmission lines.

He added that load management plan for Ramazan will be approved from Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

It was also decided that power plants in Chitral, Kohistan and other areas be connected via distribution network and a plan should immediately be chalked out.

It was also decided in the meeting that AMR meters will be installed on government’s installations in Sindh government by SEPCO and HESCO.

The meeting also decided that work on Chakdara and Mansehra Gird stations will be expedited so that voltage and other related issues of the areas may be resolved.—MUSHTAQ GHUMMAN