Activities in Pakistan

Background and Objective

The demand for electric power in Pakistan has been rapidly increasing in accordance with economic growth in the country. Moreover, the geographical location of power generation sites are not corresponding to the load centers as most of the hydropower generation is concentrated in the North and most of the thermal power generation is location in the South whereas the load centers are in the central part. Therefore, in order to efficiently transport the power from generation sites to end users, reliable and effective transmission system is crucial.

National Power Control Center (NPCC) was established in 1985 in Islamabad to control 500kV and 220kV transmission system throughout the country but with the passage of time, most of the equipment has become obsolete and its capacity is not sufficient to control expanding power grid system and require up-gradation.

Project Summary

This project is aimed at Modernization & Up-gradation of Load Dispatch Center at National Power Control Center (NPCC) Islamabad by converting it from current analogue system to digital system. Main components include Digital Processing System (DPS), Supervisory Control & Data Acquisition (SCADA), Energy Management Sysetm (EMS), 8 Remote Terminal Units (RTUs), and telecom system: Optical Fiber Ground Wire (OPGW), equipment for 8 Regional Control Centers (RCCs).

Project Highlights

Under this project, Data Processing System is being up-graded by installing latest servers, workstations and Local Area Network to ensure proper functioning of SCADA for real time power network operation, EMS for automated frequency control, load forecast, unit commitment, economic dispatch, optimal power flow etc. Remote terminal units are also being installed at all 500kV & 220kV substations, all GENCO thermal power stations and some WAPDA owned hydropower stations. In telecommunication system, the backbone telecommunication system is being replaced by laying OPGW on existing 500, 220 and 132 kV transmission lines. The existing NTDC’s old telephone system will be replaced by a new system to meet the requirements of traffic, quality, redundancy and reliability. For RCCs, painted mimic boards with hotline telephone link with NPCC are being provided in this project.