LAHORE - The federal government has removed National Transmission and Dispatch Company (NTDC) Managing Director Dr Fiaz Ahmad Chaudhry for failing to complete projects related to CPEC on time.
The NTDC Board of Directors, while adopting procedure under Companies Act 2017 under sections 190(1) and 190(2), unanimously decided to remove Dr Fiaz. The Board of Directors has also appointed Zafar Abbas as the new MD of the company. He was working earlier as the director of the NTDC, sources told The Nation.
According to them, Dr Fiaz was appointed by the NTDCL BoD with the concurrence of the government on June 30 last year. He is an electrical engineer with over 31 years of experience in the power sector in national and international utility/consulting industry including Wapda, SCECO-East and Acres International/Hatch Ltd.
The BOD noticed that interconnections of main projects of CPEC like 500 kV Port Qasim line, 220 kV Gharo line, 500 kV Rahim Yar Khan-Moro line (3rd Circuit) have not been handled in the proper way where slippage of timelines has jeopardized the prospects of full transmission of new generation. Besides 132 kV line Patrind hydropower project was also delayed and the company has served notice of damages to the tune of Rs200 million per month. Similarly, non-provision of appropriate evacuation for wind projects, generation is being curtailed resulting in Rs329 million capacity charges penalties on the power purchaser.
On removal of key system constraints to allow full flow of power in 2017 for which comprehensive exercise was conducted by the Ministry in 2016, the NTDC missed major timelines. Resultantly, the system witnessed critical shortcomings during the month of Ramazan.
According to a handout of the company, the national transmission stabilisation remained a major challenge which could not be achieved. Moreover, situation in southern part of the country was further aggravated resulting in the system collapse on 1st and 2nd Ramazan plunging large parts of southern grid in darkness. The situation was further compounded by the frequent collapse of 500 KV circuit towers due to lack of maintenance as per SOPs. The response to restore the system was highly dissatisfactory resulting in discomfort to the consumers.
According to official sources, in April 2017, the prime minister observed that insufficient capacity of transmission and distribution system would mar the efforts of the government to resolve the energy crisis. He was of the view that the main challenge in the energy sector was transmission and distribution capacity to fully utilise additional generation in the system. There was a dire need to complete transmission line projects as early as possible for evacuation of generation to be added through construction of new power plants. The prime minister had directed Ministry of Water and Power to complete the Matiari-Lahore Transmission Line project within the given time line which was not implemented.