The National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) has been directed to complete the construction of transmission line for the evacuation of power from 660 MW Lucky Electric Coal Fired Power Plant (LEPCL) to the Matiari HVDC convertor station.
The commercial operation date for the 4000MW Matiari-Lahore HVDC transmission line is September 01, 2021. For it to function properly it requires availability of complete 4000 MW of power at its Matiari terminal and 660 MW from LEPCL is a component of this 4000 MW. As per the agreement after this date NTDC/GoP will become liable to pay full transmission service payment of approximately Rs. 4.2 billion to the PMLTC for transmission load of 4000 MW through the HVDC transmission line regardless if the full transmission capacity is utilized or not.
If the transmission line is not complete by then NTDC may face a monthly estimated loss of Rs. 683,147,520 on account of under-utilization of transmission of HVDC line in addition to liquidated damages which have to be paid to LEPCL at the rate of Rs. 61,721,352/- per day for the first 60 days and thereafter at the rate of Rs. 72,554,328/- per day.
The bone of contention is that Fauji Oil Terminal & Distribution Company (FOTCO) is not allowing construction of the line within the corridor of the road claiming that their underground oil lines are passing through the area and claiming that High-Tension lines passing above it would be a hazard. Even though when FOTCO laid their lines, they were crossing the KE existing 220 kV grid and KE 220 kV transmission lines but no red flags were raised at that time.
A high level meeting has now decided that there are no legal or regulatory restraining orders against implementation of the project therefore Power Division/NTDC should proceed ahead with the project as per the given timelines and hindrance in this regard by any agency should be treated as a criminal act.
