DATES: December 2012 - July 2016
 
PTEC will help expand and improve Afghanistan’s electric transmission system and increase the capacity of the national electric utility, Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat (DABS), and the Ministry of Energy and Water (MEW). Electrification will be a key driver for economic growth and modernization in Afghanistan. Expansion of NEPS from Kabul to the Southern Electric Power System (SEPS) in Helmand and Kandahar Provinces is a high priority of Afghanistan. The NEPS to SEPS transmission line is being implemented as a multi-donor effort by USAID and Asian Development Bank (ADB).
 
Currently, approximately 9 million Afghans have access to the national power grid. The NEPS to SEPS transmission line will have the capability to provide affordable, reliable and sustainable power to an additional 1.1 million underserved and non-served Afghans in the major population centers along the Highway 1 economic corridor and in Kandahar when ADB’s Turkmenistan to Kabul transmission line is completed in 2018-2020. The transmission line will initially provide power to displace high-cost diesel generated power. USAID will implement PTEC through a broad partnership with the Afghan Government, which includes DABS and the Ministry of Finance. PTEC is on schedule to be completed by December 2016. [[nid:51636]]