First CPEC Power Transmission Project Gets Under Way

PAK Matiari-Lahore Transmission Line Company CEO Zhang Lei (left) and National Transmission and Despatch Company Managing Director Azaz Ahmad attend a ceremony at Wapda House in Lahore to mark the launch of commercial operations of the 660kV High-Voltage Direct Current transmission line on Wednesday.—Dawn
LAHORE: 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 Wednesday on its scheduled date.

On the first day, the project saved the country from a major breakdown by protecting the transmission, dispatch and distribution systems from a possible cascading effect due to tripping at Jamshoro.

“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 centres in Punjab,” National Trans­mi­ssion and Despatch Com­p­any Managing Director Azaz Ahmad explained to Dawn. “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.”