SIGAR

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
Power Transmission Expansion and Connectivity Program
The U.S.-funded PTEC program was designed to strengthen and expand
Afghanistan’s power-generation, transmission, and distribution systems,
including funding the 320-mile transmission line between Kabul and
Kandahar to connect NEPS with SEPS. 704 PTEC’s DABS commercialization
and capacity-building components aim to help the utility become financially
sustainable by increasing revenues using utility-management software in
Kabul, Mazar-e Sharif, Herat, and Jalalabad, while reducing technical and
commercial losses through training and support. 705 Technical losses include
line heating and current leakage; commercial losses include nonpayment of
bills and energy theft.
Construction on the transmission line and substations between Arghandi
and Ghazni, the first segment of the NEPS-SEPS connector, continued this
quarter. As of January 8, 2017, 98% of the transmission lines and 93% of the
substations were completed. However, damage caused by fighting between
Afghan security forces and the Taliban, as well as lags in equipment ordering
and shipping times, have impacted completion deadlines by six months.
Construction is now scheduled to be completed by July 31, 2017, at a cost
of $104 million. Approximately $80.4 million has been disbursed as of
December 15, 2016. 706 The Arghandi connector substation that will feed this
line will not be ready until after December 2017. Alternatives to power the
Arghandi-Ghazni project are under consideration. 707
USAID is providing $350 million in direct assistance to DABS in
support of the second segment of the NEPS-SEPS connector, Ghazni
to Kandahar—$179.5 million was transferred to USAID through the
Afghanistan Infrastructure Fund. DABS issued two requests for proposals
to construct one transmission line and five substations with winning
bidders selected last quarter. Awards were still pending a decision by the
National Procurement Authority as of December 2016. USAID said security
will be a major challenge to implementing this project. 708
For the SEPS Completion, Phase 2, $55 million was transferred to
USAID through the Afghanistan Infrastructure Fund to design and construct
a transmission line from Tangi to Sangin North and from Maiwand to
Kandahar, install electrical equipment, and commission three substations.
Funding will be provided on-budget and implemented by DABS. 709 Bid
evaluations and document verification, which began last quarter, are now
complete. USAID was in the process of issuing its consent to execute the
award, as of January 8, 2017. 710
Power Availability in Kandahar
U.S. fuel subsidies totaling $141.7 million for power generation at two
industrial parks in Kandahar City ceased at the end of September 2015. 711
USAID reported that since then, power output has fallen from the diesel
generators in Shorandam and Bagh-e Pol industrial parks. Five generators
REPORT TO THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS I JANUARY 30, 2017
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