Staff Repoter
Lahore
The Spokesman of National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) has said that NTDC always follow the merit order for safety, security & integration of system NEPRA Gird Code has empowered the System Operator to run the system stable in order to transmit smooth and quality power supply without interruption to the consumers across the country. However, in certain instances the System Operator is constrained to operate some of the power plants, which may be lower at the merit order, but are essentially required to maintenance the system stability. This is precisely as per the provision of grid code.
The spokesman said that it needs to be appreciated that power generated at any voltage level is ultimately delivered at 132 kV level. So from the system stability point of view, the plant connected at 132 kV level helps the system operator to feed the load directly and maintain the system stability.
In the month of Aug 2019, these RFO based power plants (Nishat Power, Nishat Chunian, Kohinor, PAK Gen, Lalpir, Attock Gen, Liberty Tech Jamshoro, ATLAS and HUBCO NAROWAL which merely constituted 3.6 % of total mix generation). The FO plants named in reference news story are generally located around Lahore, Multan and Muzaffargarh areas. Had NPCC not operated these plant the area could have faced serious voltage issues as the system is designed in such a way. It is highlighted that the power system worldwide is planned in such a way that the generation is preferably provided in the load centers at low transmission levels, in this way higher voltage infrastructure is saved. In NPCC system the FO plants have connected at 132 kV level to evacuate the power and transmit to load canters located in the close vicinity.
The spokesman asserted that if these plants are not operated, then the power flow has to be ensured from other plants in those specific areas which result in overloading of transmission assets. It is anticipated that, in the absence of these plant, the areas might have seen load shedding of about 7 hours in Pattoki, Chunian, Sunder Industrial estate, Raiwind and Kasur, about 3 hours in Multan, Muzaffargarh and Bahawalpur region.
