Coal-based Sahiwal electricity to be Re1 per unit costlier

ISLAMABAD: Electricity consumers will have to pay Re1 per unit in the tariff of 1,320 MW Sahiwal coal based power plant as transportation cost, once the project formally comes on stream, one of the top relevant officials told The News.

Railways will charge the cost of transportation of imported coal from Port Qasim—the loading point to the site of Sahiwal coal based power plant—unloading point. To this effect, a coal conveyor system from Pakistan International Bulk Terminal (PIBT) to railway network at Port Qasim has been installed at a cost of Rs15.87 billion.

The project envisages construction of a coal conveying system for transportation of coal from PIBT coal terminal to railway siding and loading of coal onto railway wagons for onward transportation to the proposed coal-fired power plants.

The end electricity consumers will pay in the tariff the transportation cost of coal of Re1 per unit that has been pitched by the top management of the project with Nepra. In the cost, 2 per cent loss of imported coal during the transportation will also be included in the cost. 

However, Nepra will deliberate in the public hearing the issue of Re1 per unit sought by project management as transportation cost and then decide accordingly. The project, however, will be having two units with each having the capacity to generate 660 MW of electricity. The plant will be supercritical with 39 percent efficiency. The plant will be availabile for electricity generation at 85 percent. Huaneng Shandong Rui Group, China is the executing and sponsoring agency of the project will make the project fully operational on commercial basis on December 25, 2017 at the cost of $1.6 billion.

The Sahiwal Power Plant connected to National Grid (500 KVA Line) in the month of January. The financial closure of the project has already been achieved and the 95 per cent civil works on the site has been completed. It planned energisation was planned in October 2017. However, the project is 6 months ahead of schedule meaning thereby that its energisation is expected in May 2017. However, this project will be the first one using the imported coal as fuel. Punjab Power Development Board (PPDB) is the supervising agency for the project.

It is pertinent to mention that Pakistan Railways, through its fully-owned freight company, is responsible for transporting coal for Punjab facilitated Sahiwal imported coal power project under Punjab Coal Initiative 2014.