First CPEC power transmission project becomes operational

ISLAMABAD: The first China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project in the power evacuation and transmission sector, the 660kV High-Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) Matiari-Lahore transmission line, started commercial operations on its scheduled date this week, Pakistani media reported on Thursday.
CPEC has seen Beijing pledge over $60 billion for energy and infrastructure projects in Pakistan, central to China’s wider Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to develop land and sea trade routes in Asia and beyond.
HVDC technology is widely used around the world for long-distance high-power transmission from generating stations in remote areas to densely located load centers.
“It is a matter of great importance that the country finally succeeded in having the first and the biggest HVDC transmission line to evacuate 4,000 megawatts from power plants in the south in direct current (DC) mode, transport and transmit it to Lahore after conve­r­ting it into alternate current (AC) mode and finally feed it to the distribution systems in the load centers in Punjab,” National Trans­mi­ssion and Despatch Com­pany (NTDC) Managing Director Azaz Ahmad told Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper.
“With the provision of the HVDC line, there are now meagre chances of blackouts, breakdowns etc due to system constraints since the entire NTDC tran­smission and dispatch system has attained stability.”
Ahmad said the Matiari-Lahore line had “helped keep the system stable and saved it from a cascading affect to other parts of the country” after a power cut hit Pakistan’s financial hub of Karachi a day earlier, on Wednesday. 
A launch ceremony for the transmission line was held here at the Wapda House in Lahore on Wednesday and attended by NTDC MD Ahmad, PMLTC chief Zhang Lei and others.
“We appreciate the Chinese company for completion of the project on time,” the MD said on the occasion, adding that the line would bring stability to the NTDC transmission network.
The 878-kilometer 4,000MW project has been completed by PMLTC (Pvt) Limited on a Build-Own-Operate-Transfer basis for 25 years. The project will evacuate power from new generating units located in the country’s south, including the Thar coal projects.
The NTDC will be responsible for the operation and maintenance of the transmission line.