Karachi based firm to set up power plant in Karachi

Islamabad: A Karachi-based firm will establish a 48-MW rental-based barge mounted power plant in Karachi. Informed sources quoting official documents confirmed to Business Recorder that Karachi Electric Supply Corporation, now a private entity, had declined to purchase power to be generated by the firm for certain reasons.

The sources said when the firm approached a caretaker minister at Lahore on November 26, 2007, they were assured that if KESC was not willing to purchase power, National Power and Dispatch Company (NTDC) of Wapda would procure power and sell it to KESC on an agreed tariff.

To accommodate this firm, the sources said that gas allocated to two of the Independent Power Producers to be established in Karachi has been shut off for setting it aside for the new project.

The plan is very much in progress and the concerned ministry is extending all possible help towards the execution of the project. 'We are thankful to you for informing us that it has been decided to accept 48-MW barge mounted power plant and to make the corresponding gas allocation,' said, the firm in a letter to the minister on November 27, 2007.

According to the letter, the owners of the barge are making necessary arrangements for relocating it for which the shipping company requires details of the disembarkation port in Pakistan.

The barge mounted gas turbine generator station consists of one 48-MW (ISO) Siemens-Westinghouse W 251B11 distillate or gas fuelled turbines deriving 11.5 kV, 50 Hz brush air cooled alternators with switchgear, parallel systems and all auxiliaries, mounted on a common barge. The barge is fitted with 11/132 kV step-up transformers, which could be changed if any alternative grid voltage is required.

The foreign associates of the company, Messrs. Blue Crest Capital Management, one of the largest hedge funds in Europe had to met the minister in December but it was not confirmed if they had called on him to say 'thank you'.

The firm, in its letter further said that it was doing everything possible to cut the commissioning time after the signing of the contract on the lines as per the understanding reached between NTDC and Alstom Power Rental. In 2008, Karachi's minimum electricity demand is expected to hover around 2,640 MW against KESC supply of around 1,810 MW.