By Ijaz Kakakhel

Commercial operations of the Central Asia-South Asia Electricity Transmission and Trade Project, commonly known as CASA-1000, are expected to begin on May 1, 2028, after completion of the remaining transmission works in Afghanistan, according to the latest project status document, available with Wealth Pakistan.

The project has already been substantially completed on the Pakistan side, with the main converter station at 99.7 per cent overall progress and the associated electrode station at 99.5 per cent complete. However, full commissioning cannot take place until the Afghanistan transmission line is completed, which is expected by September 2027.

Under the current schedule, the stations will remain under the care and custody of contractor M/s Hitachi from April 1, 2026 to Feb 29, 2028. This period will allow the facilities to remain in operational readiness while the cross-border transmission system is completed and prepared for integrated testing.

The CASA-1000 project is a $1.2 billion regional electricity initiative designed to create a framework for power trade between Tajikistan and the Kyrgyz Republic in Central Asia and Afghanistan and Pakistan in South Asia. It is intended to facilitate the supply of 1,300 megawatts of surplus renewable hydropower from Central Asia to South Asia during the summer months from May to September, while providing open access for electricity trade from October to April.

For Pakistan, the works covered in the project status sheet include the construction of a bi-pole ±500 kilovolt high-voltage direct-current converter station along with a 66kV grounding electrode station.

Progress on the converter station is now near completion. Engineering and design are 97pc complete, procurement 100pc, civil works 99.9pc, installation 99.9pc and testing and commissioning 99pc. At the electrode station, engineering and design have reached 100pc, while procurement, civil works and installation are each at 99pc. Testing and commissioning stand at 98pc.

The financing details show two World Bank International Development Association loans for the Pakistan component. The first, IDA-54090-PK, carries a total amount of $120 million, of which $99.437m, or 82.86pc, has been utilised. The second loan, IDA-64320-PK, totals $65m, with $56.821m, or 87.41pc, utilised. Both loans are scheduled to close on Dec 31, 2028.

The loan record also shows that IDA-54090-PK was signed on May 11, 2015 and became effective on Jan 24, 2018. IDA-64320-PK was signed on Nov 26, 2019 and became effective on May 15, 2020. The long implementation period underlines how the regional nature of CASA-1000 has tied completion of individual national facilities to progress across the wider transmission chain.

The project document identifies the late handover of the site and the Covid-19 pandemic as major causes of delay. It also notes that full system testing and commissioning will remain delayed until the Afghanistan transmission line becomes available.

Once operational, the project would move from the construction phase into a cross-border electricity trading phase built around seasonal surplus hydropower and regional transmission connectivity.

With the converter and electrode facilities virtually complete, the main remaining dependency is, therefore, the completion of the Afghan transmission segment. If the present timeline holds, integrated commissioning would follow that milestone, clearing the way for commercial electricity trade to begin from May 1, 2028.

Credit: INP-WealthPk