The National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) on Tuesday secured Rs 6.4 billion financings from a three-member bank consortium for the construction of a 220kV/132kV power grid station and allied 35 kilometers transmission lines to get 1,274 MW of lean renewable energy from 10 wind power projects being deployed in the Gharo-Jhimpir wind corridor near Tando Muhammad Khan in Sindh.
The loan agreement, signed by the consortium (National Bank of Pakistan, Habib Bank Limited, and Bank Islami Pakistan Limited) was signed by the Managing Director of NTDC Muhammad Ayub and consortium representatives Asad Altaf, Zia-ud-Din Tahir, and Amir Ashraf in a ceremony held here at Casa Wapda.
It is the first time that NTDC raises funds with its resources (balance sheet) without a government guarantee.
“Previously, we relied on Pakistani government-guaranteed loans in the local market,” Ayub said in speaking at the time. The funding mechanism would be a precursor to more funding for upcoming NTDC projects, he said.
According to the MD, the cost of the PC-1 of the Jhimpir-II transmission lines and the substation project is Rs10.753 billion, while the financing required is Rs6.4 billion. The rest of the amount will be funded by the company with its available financial resources.
The project will have enough capacity to transmit more power in the future. To fulfill the future development needs in the Gharo-Jhimpir wind corridor, the 220kV grid station would be upgraded to 500kV capacity in the next few years, he said.
Din Energy, Gul Ahmed Electric, Metro Wind Power, NASDA Green Energy, Liberty Wind Power-I, Liberty Wind Power-II, ACT-2 Wind, Indus Wind Energy, Lakeside Energy, and Artistic Wind Power are among the ten private-sector wind energy projects currently under construction, according to an official source.
Each of these 10 wind energy projects has a capacity of 50 MW and the projects should start commercial operation from February next year.
Later, more projects will be launched in the Gharo-Jhimpir wind power cluster asking for anonymity. In this cluster, twenty-four of these projects with a total installed capacity of 1085 MW have already been built, supplying around 950 MW to the national grid. 220kV Tando Muhammad Khan’s system and lines are absorbing power from these facilities and transferring it to the grid.
He said the bank loan of Rs 6.4 billion would be transferred from the consortium to the company’s accounts.
 on Tuesday secured Rs 6.4 billion financings from a three-member bank consortium for the construction of a 220kV/132kV power grid station....){kind=link}