ISLAMABAD: The World Bank (WB) has rated the implementation progress of the “National Transmission Modernization-1 Project (NTMP-I)”, of around $400 million as moderately satisfactory.

The project was approved in December 2017 with the development objective of to increase the capacity and reliability of selected segments of the national transmission system in Pakistan and modernise key business processes of the National Transmission and Dispatch Company. The closing date of the project is 31st January 2024.

The components of the project include expansion and upgradation of the transmission network ($344.56 million), deployment of the enterprise resource planning system ($29.46 million) and project management, technical assistance and capacity building ($20 million).

Official documents revealed that the project became effective on December 11, 2018. Procurement of the design, supply and installation for the infrastructure component has been ongoing. Sixteen procurement packages out of 17 have been completed, out of which 13 have been awarded by National Transmission and Dispatch Company (NTDC).

Three completed AIS to GIS procurement packages have been cancelled due to high bidding cost and the largest and last of the package, Islamabad West 765kV grid substation is currently under technical evaluation review. Eleven transformers have been installed in the NTDC network out of 43.

Under the procurement of Enterprise Resource Planning implementation, 10 contracts have been signed under the ERP out of 11, with the last one currently under bidding because the earlier bidding process was cancelled due to low bid response.

The power system consultancy contract on the NTDC grid has been awarded and the review of NTDC’s Grid code has been completed and approved by the NEPRA, the documents noted.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023