National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) has secured a financing of Rs 6.4 billion as a loan from a consortium of banks.
The banks include Habib Bank Limited, National Bank of Pakistan, and Bank Islami Pakistan Limited. Managing Director of NTDC, Muhammad Ayub, and the representatives of the banks Asad Altaf, Zia-up-Dib, Tahir, and Amir Ashraf signed the agreement. This is the first time when the NTDC has raised the funds from its own resources without any guarantee from the government.
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The MD said, “Previously, we had relied on the Pakistan government’s guaranteed loans in the local market.” The loan is for the induction of 956-megawatt electricity from wind power projects to the system. The financing would be used by NTDC for the construction of 220/132 kV substations and allied Transmission Lines to evacuate clean renewable energy from 19 wind power plants at the Jhimpir wind corridor.
The PC-1 cost of the Jhimpir II transmission line and substation project is Rs 10.753 billion and the funding required is Rs 6.4 billion. The rest of the amount will be arranged by the resources of the company. Work on 10 private-sector wind projects is on the way at present. These projects include Din Energy, Gul Ahmad Electric, Metro Wind Power, NASDA green Energy, Liberty Wind Power-1, Liberty Wind Power-II, ACT-2 Wind, Indus Wind Energy, Lakeside Energy, and Artistic Wind Power.
These projects are likely to start their commercial operation from the second month of the next calendar year with the capacity of producing 50 megawatts each. The production of electricity through the wind in Pakistan is a big effort of producing the electricity not only at low cost but it will be pollution-free energy.
Geographically, Pakistan is located at the position where the production of wind energy is highly feasible. The financing signing ceremony took place at the Ministry of Energy where Minister for Energy, Omar Ayub Khan, Secretary, Power Division, and senior officials of Power Division and NTDC were present.
