The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) has taken notice of increased load shedding faced recently by consumers in various parts of the country.
It has been found that the underlying cause hampering a smooth electricity supply is overloaded grid stations of the National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC).
According to a statement issued by NEPRA, the NTDC’s grid stations have suffered excessive load, specifically in service territories of the Islamabad Electric Supply Company, Lahore Electric Supply Company and Peshawar Electric Supply Company.
This led to forced load shedding by power distribution companies to ease the load on 500-kilovolt Rewat, Sheikhupura, Gatti, Multan and Shikarpur grid stations and 220kv Burhan, New Kot Lakhpat, Kassowal, Mardan, Bannu, Vehari, Muzaffargarh and Hala Road grid stations.
Over the past three fiscal years, NEPRA said it had allowed NTDC an investment of Rs96.63 billion for improvement and reliability of the power transmission network. However, NTDC has so far failed to bring any improvement in its network.
“Repeated power breakdowns, persistent overloading at NTDC’s grid stations, delay in transmission line and grid station projects and issues related to electricity supply from power plants among a few other matters indicate the poor performance of NTDC,” NEPRA said.
Furthermore, the company also failed to provide information about constraints in its network to NEPRA.
The regulatory authority then took serious notice of the failure of NTDC and directed the system operator, through a letter dated November 20, 2017, to resolve the issue of overloaded grid stations expeditiously.
However, according to NEPRA, the issues with NTDC’s network have remained unresolved and will get further aggravated in the following months of July and August if immediate measures are not taken by the company.
In light of such issues, NEPRA gave directives to NTDC to immediately prepare and implement a plan for the resolution of overload and network challenges.
