ISLAMABAD: The Central Asia South Asia (CASA)-1000 power transmission project, signed between Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Pakistan and Afghanistan, will be completed by June 30, 2020 and it will cost $ 997 million.
Under the proposed project, initially 1300 MW electricity would be imported from the Kyrgyz Republic and Tajikistan and Pakistan would get 1,000MW of power while Afghanistan would receive the remaining 300MW.
Sources said that CASA-1000 would enable the Kyrgyz Republic and Tajikistan to sell their summer electricity surplus from existing plants in Central Asia-Kyrgyz Republic and Tajikistan and provide electricity to consumers in South Asian countries of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The project includes-500 kv line Datka-Khudjand (477km) with Tajik network transferring Kyrgyz exports to Sangtuda, 1300 MW AC-DC convertor station at Sangtuda, 750 km HVDC line Sangtuda-Kabul-Peshawar,300 MW Convertor station at Kabul with import and export capability and then 1300 MW DC-AC convertor station would be set up at Peshawar.
Casa-1000 will build 1,222 kilometres` of electricity transmission lines and associated substations to transmit excess summer hydropower energy from existing power generation stations in Tajikistan and the Krgyz Republic to Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The sources said that 447 km transmission line would be laid in Tajikistan, Kyrgyz Republic and 750 km would be in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Kyrgyz Republic and Tajikistan both generate a surplus of electricity from hydropower during the summer while these countries suffer electricity shortages during their cold winters. Thus part of the summer electricity cannot be stored. To a question, they said Afghanistan had earlier asked for 2.5 cents per KW but after a lot of discussions the price has been brought down to 1.25 cents per KW It is pertinent to mention here that Pakistan and Afghanistan have also signed the agreement on electricity transit fees which is a major step towards energy trading between Central and South Asia.
