660kV High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) licence for Matiari-Lahore line

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Matiari-Lahore transmission line

The 878km transmission link will stretch from Matiari to Lahore and will be capable of transmitting up to 4GW of electricity. After 25 years of operations, the ownership of the transmission line will be transferred to the National Transmission and Dispatch Company (NTDC), a power transmission company owned by the Pakistani government.

Route details

The 660kV HVDC transmission line will stretch from Matiari in the province of Sindh to the Nankana Sahib district near Lahore, Pakistan.

In the province of Sindh, the line passes through the districts of Matiari, Sanghar, Khairpur, Sukkur, and Ghotki for a total distance of approximately 315km.

In the province of Punjab, the line passes through the districts of Rahim Yar Khan, Bahawalpur, Bahawal Nagar, Pak Pattan, Okara, Kasur, and Nankana for a total distance of approximately 551km.

More than 60% of the line route lies in desert areas in order to avoid settlement issues and conflicts associated with the securing of right-of-way.



Matiari-Lahore transmission line design

The Matiari-Lahore transmission link is a bi-pole HVDC line with two converter stations at Matiari and Lahore. The project also involves three repeater stations and two grounding electrode stations.

A total of 1898 self-supporting, uniformly spaced steel lattice towers are being installed, out of which approximately 681 towers are located in Sindh and the remaining in Punjab.

The Matiari converter station will be connected with multiple power stations being developed under the CPEC framework. The Lahore Converter station will connect to the new Lahore substation from where electricity will be transferred to the national grid.

Each converter station will have a valve hall equipped with thyristor valves, a control building, and an outdoor switchyard that houses the power transformers and harmonic filters.



Power supply for the Matiari-Lahore transmission line

The Matiari converter station will receive power supply from the Port Qasim power plant through a 185km-long 500kV AC transmission line and from the Hubco power plant through a 200km-long 500kV AC transmission line.

The Engro Thar coal power plant and the SSRL Thar Block-1 power plant will also be connected to the Matiari converter station through a 250km and a 275km AC transmission line respectively.


Contractors involved

China Electric Power Equipment and Technology (CET), a wholly-owned subsidiary of SGCC, is the main contractor and is executing the project through the special purpose Pak Matiari-Lahore Transmission Company.

SNC Lavalin, a Canadian engineering company, conducted the feasibility study for the project in 2013.

DECON International, a German engineering and consulting company, completed pile testing on pile foundations for the transmission project in April 2020.

King & Wood Mallesons (KWM), a multinational law firm headquartered in Hong Kong, acts as lead legal counsel to CET for the Matiari-Lahore transmission project.

 

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Pakistan's first HVDC transmission line passes testing

Khalid Hasnain
June 4, 2021

The formal operation of the Matiari-Lahore transmission line will begin on Sept 1.

LAHORE: Testing for the evacuation, transmission, dispatch and distribution of 2,200MW of electricity by the country’s first high voltage direct current (HVDC) Matiari-Lahore transmission line was successfully carried out on Thursday, paving the way for the launch of the line’s formal operation on Sept 1, a revised date for the commercial operation of the mega project being completed under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

“Since the line has been designed to evacuate 4,000MW from the power plants in south (Sindh) in alternative current (AC) mode, convert it in direct current (DC) at a convertor station at Matiari (Sindh, near Hyderabad), transport/transmit it in DC mode and dispatch it to the distribution systems of the power distribution companies after converting it from AC to DC at a convertor station near Bhai Pheru (Lahore), the transmission and despatch test of 2,200MW is a major test ahead of the commercial operation of the line set for Sept 1,” a spokesman for NTDC told Dawn.


He said the 660kV HVDC line is new technology in Pakistan being completed under the ‘build, own, operate and transfer basis by the Matiari-Lahore Transmission Company under the supervision of the NTDC. From Sept 1, the official said the line would start evacuating, transmitting and dispatching of 4,000MW to the urban load centres in central and northern parts of the country.

“After 25 years operation, the project will be handed over to the NTDC,” he said.

In April, this year, the decision for the launch of commercial operation of the line from Sept 1 had been taken after various technical and contractual issues were amicably resolved between the Pak Matiari-Lahore Transmission Company Limited (PMLTCPL) and the NTDC.

The project agreements were signed between the NTDC and the PMLTCPL at the PM house on May 14, 2018, and its construction was launched in December 2018. Currently, the construction of the project is almost complete and the project is at advanced stages of testing and commissioning, and more than 95pc testing and commissioning stands completed.


Published in Dawn, June 4th, 2021

 

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High voltage direct current (HVDC) Transmission

Electricity is typically transferred between various regions of the country over transmission lines via alternating current (AC). A less common form of transmission is high voltage direct current (HVDC).

When the electricity grid was developing in the late 1800s, a great debate ensued over which type of current was best for transmitting electricity. Alternating current ultimately won since a transformer could be used to increase or decrease voltages, and no similar option existed at the time for direct current.


Advantages and Disadvantages of HVDC

Alternating current travels as a wave, and is constantly changing direction (60 times per second, defined as 60 hertz, in North America). Since direct current does not involve oscillation, it decreases losses and allows electricity to be transmitted more efficiently.

However, the cost of the substation equipment needed to convert DC electricity back to AC at both ends of the transmission line is expensive. Since the initial cost can be prohibitive, HVDC transmission is usually only preferred for long distances. Over their lifetime, long-distance transmission lines can save operators money because of their efficiency.

Other advantages of HVDC include lighter and cheaper towers (since DC cable can carry more power than AC cable), and it does not generate or absorb any reactive power, eliminating the need for reactive power compensation.

In addition to equipment cost, another disadvantage for HVDC involves heat losses that occur in the converter substation, which requires an active cooling system. Also, inverters used in converter substations have limited overload capacity. A shortage of proficient electrical engineers to maintain and operate HVDC lines and equipment also remains a longstanding challenge, according to a recent report on the HVDC market.


Growth of HVDC Transmission Systems

While AC transmission remains the dominant form of transmission in the U.S., HVDC transmission systems have been growing in recent decades as technological developments have helped reduce costs. HVDC transmission is also seen as a solution for distributing renewable energy (such as wind and solar) from remote areas where it is easily generated to more densely populated areas of the country.

The U.S. has 20 HVDC transmission facilities, including the Pacific DC Intertie, which became the first major HVDC link in the U.S. when it was commissioned in 1970. The 845-mile line transmits electricity between the Pacific Northwest and the Los Angeles area, moving surplus electricity from one region to the other as seasonal demands shift. Since its original construction, modernizations have more than doubled its DC capacity to 3,100 MW.

 

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PM Imran says that the transmission lines are old and power losses are high, due to which even if there is electricity, it cannot be saved

Web Desk
September 30, 2021

PM Imran Khan addressing a ceremony in connection with the inauguration of Matiari to Lahore 600 KV transmission line completed under the CPEC. -Radio Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan Thursday admitted that the breakout of the coronavirus pandemic hampered progress on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects in the country.

Addressing the inaugural ceremony of the new 886 km-long 600 KV transmission line from Matiari in Sindh to Lahore, PM Imran vowed to speed up the pace of work on the CPEC projects.

 

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