USAID financed CASA-1000 IGC hiring Pakistan Country Coordinator
Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan: The CASA-1000 is moving ahead as USAID is looking for Pakistan Country Coordinator for Inter-Governmental Council (IGC) Secretariat.
It may be mentioned that four-member countries of the CASA-1000 project (Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan) have created an IGC with a responsibility for discussing and deciding on strategic issues regarding the project, and for ensuring that the necessary steps are taken to implement it.
Lon-awaited US-backed CASA-1000 project aims to facilitate sustainable electricity trade between hydropower surplus countries in Central Asia and electricity deficient countries in South Asia by putting in place the commercial and institutional arrangements and the transmission infrastructure required for this trade. Project will open to buy electricity from other regional countries during the non-supply periods (October to April). Kazakhstan and Russia could be two non-CASA-1000 countries to sell electricity when Kyrgyz Republic and Tajikistan will have no capacity to sell electricity during winter period.
This project is financed by a number of donor organizations and IFIs (the World Bank, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), and the UK Department of International Development (DFID)).
The project entails the construction of a cross-border power trade system comprised of: (i) a 475 km 500kV HVAC transmission line to carry power from Kyrgyzstan to Tajikistan at Khodjant; and (ii) a 1300 MW HVDC converter in Tajikistan (at Sangtuda) and a 750km ±500kV HVDC transmission link, via a 300 MW HVDC converter in Kabul, to a 1,300 MW terminal with HVDC converter facilities in Pakistan at Peshawar. The HVDC convertor stations would be designed to help power trade in any direction, and would offer significant emergency system support to the national grids of the countries connected through HVDC system. Within each country, CASA-1000 construction activities will be managed by four Project Implementation Units (PIUs), which will be established by each country within the structure of their respective National Transmission Companies. The PIUs will be established before commencement of CASA-1000 construction phase.
The IGC is responsible for discussing and deciding on strategic issues regarding the project, and for ensuring that the necessary steps are taken to implement it.
To provide central coordination and high-level leadership in support of the CASA-1000 project, the IGC has also established the CASA-1000 IGC Secretariat.
USAID Central Asia Mission is financing the IGC Secretariat activities under the Energy Links Project and has retained ECODIT, LLC, as the Prime Contractor to support the CASA-1000 project. The IGC Secretariat is temporarily operating from Almaty, Kazakhstan.
The IGC Secretariat is planning to establish Country Offices in all four-member countries of the CASA-1000 project (Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan) to increase the efficiency of daily communications and interactions with the project implementation units (PIUs), government stakeholders, donor organizations and international financial institutions (IFIs) within each of the countries.
Pakistan Country Coordinator will provide technical and communications assistance to the Secretariat ED and the CASA-1000 Working Group and PIUs to advance the goal of successfully completing the CASA-1000 project in partnership with the CASA-1000 countries and participating IFIs and donors.
Islamabad adds
Pakistan has demanded to establish Secretariat of Central Asia South Asia (CASA-1000), Power Supply Project to Islamabad. Temporary Secretariat of CASA-1000 is working in Kazakhstan which is not even member country of CASA-1000 project.
According to Dispatch News Desk (DND) news agency, State Minister for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali met Tajik ambassador Sherali Jononov in Islamabad on Wednesday and stated that Secretariat of CASA-1000 should be established to Islamabad without delay.
Abid Sher Ali apprised the ambassador about progress on CASA-1000, and reiterated that the CASA Secretariat should be established in Islamabad.
