Power Division proposes to CCoE to terminate services of CPGCL's chief executive office.

The Power Division has recommended to a cabinet committee to terminate the services of the Central Power Generation Company (CPGCL) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Hammad Amer over a countrywide power breakdown in January, caused by the negligence of the company.

'Accordingly, it proposed that the Board of Directors (BoD) may relieve Mr Hammad Amer... of his duties as the CEO with immediate effect by termination of his contract,' the Power Division stated in its recommendation to the Cabinet Committee on Energy (CCoE), scheduled to meet on Thursday (today).

500kV Guddu Shikarpur Circuit No 2 tripped on January 9 at 11:41pm. This happening was followed by the tripping of 500kV Guddu Muzaffargarh and the Guddu DG Khan transmission lines, causing a countrywide power system breakdown.

Later two inquiries were launched into the incident on the direction of the Power Division.

The first inquiry - undertaken by the board of the Central Power Generation Company Limited (Genco-II) - was mandated to probe into causes of the tripping incident at the TPS Guddu, which resulted in the cascade tripping of the grid.

The second inquiry was ordered by the board of the National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC). The NTDC also conducted their internal inquiry. The Power Division has now submitted a comparative statement to the CCoE, encapsulating recommendations of the three inquiry reports.

All the three inquiry reports clearly establish that the Guddu Power Complex was the triggering point and cause of total power system collapse.

The collapse was primarily due to violation of the standard operating procedures (SOPs) with regard to maintenance and operation. The technical staff was conducting operations without...