Hammad Azhar announces ‘massive investment’ in power distribution

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Energy Hammad Azhar Friday announced a massive investment of Rs111 billion in the power distribution system through National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC), ARY NEWS reported.

The federal minister took to Twitter to make the announcement, saying that this would increase the capability of the national grid system to transmit 28,750 MW and 31,500 MW in the summer of 2023 and 2024 respectively.

He shared that in 2018, they started off with just 20,811 MW.

It is pertinent to mention here that Prime Minister Imran Khan in September directed to devise a mechanism for uninterrupted power supply across the country to areas regularly paying their electricity bills during the Council of Common Interest (CCI) meeting.

The prime minister while chairing the CCI meeting directed the power division to ensure uninterrupted power supply to grid stations from where payments are being received regularly.

“The power division should utilize technology to identify theft at low recovery grid stations,” Imran Khan said during the meeting which was also attended by chief ministers from Sindh, Punjab, and KP, Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin, Energy Minister Hammad Azhar, and others.

Previously sharing details of the meeting, Hammad Azhar said from his Twitter handle that the CCI has finally approved the long-term power generation plan that had been pending since 2005 which shall enable the generation of power proportional to the demand.

The Indicative Generation Capacity Expansion Plan (IGCEP) model, which only allows power generation to be added when it’s needed and is cheap, has today been approved by the CCI, said Hammad Azhar.

Leave a Comment