ISLAMABAD: The National Grid Company (NGC) — formerly the National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) — and the Power Planning and Monitoring Company (PPMC) have reportedly locked horns over the proposed retention of the Standards and Specifications (S&S) organisation, sources close to the Managing Director of PPMC told Business Recorder.
In this regard, the Power Division has issued directions to NTDC, while the Minister has provided guidance regarding the transfer of the Standards and Specifications (S&S) function for 11kV and below from NGC to PPMC.
However, as a state-owned enterprise, NGC is required to obtain formal approval from its Board of Directors for any such functional transfer. A due diligence process is currently under way.
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Based on the findings of a constituted committee and NGC’s institutional experience, the newly appointed Managing Director of NGC, Altaf Hussain Malik, has highlighted several critical risks associated with the proposed transfer.
Safety and system integrity: The S&S function ensures uniformity, quality, and safety across the power distribution network. NGC possesses decades of engineering expertise, accredited laboratories, and compliance with international standards such as IEC, IEEE, and ANSI. Transferring this role to a non-engineering entity like PPMC—which lacks the requisite technical capacity and testing infrastructure—could compromise equipment reliability, increase system failures, and pose significant public safety risks.
Regulatory and legal non-compliance: NGC operates under a Nepra licence, with the S&S mandate embedded in the Grid Code. PPMC is an unlicensed entity with no statutory role in engineering standards.
Any such transfer would violate existing regulations and require extensive legislative and regulatory amendments, creating legal uncertainty and potential audit objections.
Financial and operational impact: The S&S office is a profitable, revenue-generating unit for NGC, contributing approximately Rs 30–40 million per month. Its transfer without proper financial and operational valuation would result in substantial revenue losses to the national exchequer and disrupt service continuity to DISCOs — none of which have raised concerns about NGC’s current S&S services.
Misalignment with sector reforms and global practice: Globally, standards and specifications are managed by utilities and are ultimately vested within distribution companies once they develop in-house capacity.
Transferring this function to an intermediate, non-technical government entity does not align with international best practices and would add unnecessary bureaucratic layering without any technical or operational benefit.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026
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