ISLAMABAD: The government on Thursday reconstituted the board of directors of the National Transmission & Despatch Company (NTDC) under the chairmanship of former managing director of K-Electric Naveed Ismail.

According to a notification issued by the Power Division, seven out of 11 members of the existing board have been replaced. All the independent directors are new faces on the board whose number has been reduced from six to five.

They include Ali Zain Banatwala (a Karachi-based system optimisation and smart grids expert), Nauman K. Hyder (former HBL president), Almas Hyder (a Lahore-based businessman) and Haroon Jan Baraylay (a managing partner at FGE Ebrahim Hosain).

Two important changes have also been made in the board through induction of Member Energy of Planning Commission and Chief Executive of Central Power Purchasing Agency — a sister company of NTDC. The number of non-executive members from Power Division has been reduced from three to two.

Managing Directors of PPIB and NTDC would also continue on the board. NTDC operates the country’s national grid and had been in spotlight in recent days owing a countrywide power breakdown early this month.

Like SAPMs on Power and Petroleum Tabish Gohar and Nadeem Babar, Mr Ismail is also a former executive of the AES Corporation of the US. Both Mr Gohar and Ismail also held top positions at K-Electric and Oasis Energy — a Dubai-based energy consultancy firm.

Mr Ismail is currently the founder and CEO of Lumen Energia — an independent power company which has the management control of KarGres-1, a 135MW combined heat and power plant, developing a 50-100 MW waste gas to power project for ArcelorMittal Steel, and a 300 MW power business for the Bassel Group.

He has also held top positions at AES, remained CEO of Gencos Holding Company and NTDC for sometime.

Published in Dawn, January 29th, 2021