Hitachi ABB to help expand Pakistan’s renewable energy capacity

2021-8-19 Hitachi ABB

Pakistan’s largest transmission company, National Transmission & Despatch Company Limited (NTDC), has awarded a consortium that includes China Machinery Engineering Corporation (CMEC) and Hitachi ABB Power Grids a project to deliver an all-new Load Dispatch System (LDS) to support the country’s sustainable energy goals.

The LDS system will help to improve grid visibility and automation, enabling the seamless integration of renewables.

Pakistan is aiming to increase the contribution of renewable energy from four percent today to thirty percent by 2030.

To achieve this, the project team will deploy a SCADA Energy Management System (EMS) at NTDC’s national control center in Islamabad and at the back-up control center in Jamshoro. The system will connect the control centers with all the power plants and grid stations that are not currently monitored in real-time and will help build capacity for future stations and remote ends.

The project will also involve the installation of a new mission-critical communication network with a fiberoptic foundation and featuring a microwave network as back-up.

NTDC is backbone of the national power system in Pakistan and is the country’s largest transmission company. The company owns 220kV and 500kV grid stations and transmission lines and is preparing to welcome ultra-high voltage (765kV) and high voltage direct current (HVDC) technology. 

“This hallmark project for NTDC, financed by Asian Development Bank (ADB), will open new horizons through automation and sustainable international best practices to achieve a safe and reliable grid,” said Engr. Azaz Ahmad, Managing Director, NTDC. He added, “The project will bring more visibility and control to NTDC’s operations, enhancing system stability and curtailing system collapse and blackouts incidents in future.”

“It’s incredibly exciting to support Pakistan’s giant leap toward a sustainable, carbon-neutral future,” said Massimo Danieli, Executive Vice President, Grid Automation, Hitachi ABB Power Grids. “The national LDS project is the culmination of several years of engagement with NTDC to understand its current and future needs and to deliver a project that is complex, geographically and technically,” he added.