ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Power Division Sardar Awais Ahmed Khan Leghari has directed a team of experts from the National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) be sent to China to study the Beijing model of electricity being developed for smog conditions in order to implement the same in the smog hit areas of Pakistan.
The guidelines for this were passed in a special meeting chaired by Leghari to assess the situation which has developed due to the new weather conditions in some parts of the country and has caused power outages. Officials from all distribution companies, NTDC, GNECOs, NPCC and Power Division attended the meeting.
The federal minister directed that immediate measures like installation of anti-smog and anti-fog discs be taken at critical points to ensure uninterrupted power supply to the consumers as there is no shortage of generation in the country.
Furthermore, Leghari also directed all CEOs of the DISCOs and NTDC to sit together and evolve a technically sound solution to the prevailing problem. He directed that the planning and proposals should be finalised within three to four weeks’ time.
The federal minister appreciated the efforts of ground teams which are working in the extreme weather conditions and are fighting the impacts of toxic gases deposits at the high transmission and distribution lines.
He also appreciated the efforts to control the cascading effects of the tripping which could have resulted in system breakdown and blackouts, something which was experienced a few years back.
Leghari was informed that areas in MEPCO, LESCO and HESCO region are being faced with unique smog for the first time. The smog contains dust, industrial emissions, carbon monoxide, ozone and nitrogen oxide, which when mix with moisture in the late hours of the night and heated by the high voltage create flash, results in breakage of insulators.
He was informed that in last four days 82 points at 500/220Kv transmission lines of NTDC have experienced the same phenomenon, resulting in tripping. The DISCOs level 132kv transmission lines also faced the same kind of problems and their number is much higher.
The federal minister said that the country has already entered into an era of bridging the demand and supply gap after more than one and a half decade as sufficient generation is now available within the system to meet the demand. He noted that even this morning the system demand is 12552MW, while 14000MW is available, which clearly shows that there is no shortage of electricity in the country.
The present situation is unique as the system is faced with outages due to technical conditions triggered by the weather conditions. He expressed that like the government was successful in bridging the demand-supply gap it will also succeed in solving the emerging problems due to new weather conditions.