Earlier today, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif attended the inauguration ceremony of the Central Asia South Asia (CASA-1000) transmission line near Dushanbe in Tajikistan, Radio Pakistan reported.
The $1.2 billion, 750-kilometer-long transmission line, expected to be complete by 2018, will allow Pakistan to import electricity from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan via Afghanistan to minimize the country’s electricity shortage.
The initial plan is to transmit about 1,300MW of electricity from Republic and Tajikistan to Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Pakistan will consume about 1,000MW of the exported energy, while Afghanistan will use 300MW. Around 16 percent of the transmission line will pass through Tajikistan, 75pc through Afghanistan and 9pc through Pakistan.
Tajik President Emomali Rahmon, Afghan Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah and Kyrgyz Prime Minister Sooronbay Jeenbekov jointly launched the project alongside PM Nawaz.
At a delegation-level meeting during his two-day trip to Tajikistan, Nawaz Sharif agreed to strengthen bilateral relations, particularly in trade, energy and connectivity with his hosts.
Pakistan, Afghanistan, the Kyrgyz Republic and Tajikistan ─ the world’s third largest producer of hydroelectric power ─ have been pursuing the development of electricity-trading arrangements and the establishment of the Casa Regional Energy Market (CASAREM) since 2005, starting with the supply of 1,300MW which may go up to 2,800MW in subsequent years.
The Afghan government has given a sovereign guarantee to protect the section of the transmission line passing through it.
The Casa-1000 project will comprise the development, financing, construction, ownership and operation of the AC and DC facilities.
The transmission line originates from Kyrgyzstan with a substation at Datka to Tajikistan’s four substations, including Sughda, Dushanbe, Regar and Sangtuda. Then it passes through Afghanistan to Pakistan with a converter station at Nowshera.
This will include a 750km high voltage direct current (DC) transmission system between Tajikistan and Pakistan via Afghanistan, together with associated converter stations at Sangtuda (1,300MW), Kabul (300MW) and Peshawar (1,300MW).
A 477km 500kV alternating current facility will also run between the Kyrgyz Republic (Datka) and Tajikistan (Khoujand). System upgrades will be required to safely and reliably accommodate the AC and DC facilities and the associated power flows.
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