Haveli Bahadur Shah turbine of 385MW switches on successfully

LAHORE: The Haveli Bahadur Shah Power Plant gas turbine of 385 megawatt generation capacity achieved its first fire on Tuesday and is now expected to be fully operational in a few weeks.

First fire is a critical test where the gas turbine is switched on and runs on fuel at the site. The turbine can generate up to 385MW of reliable power that is expected to be distributed for residential and commercial use within a few weeks following first fire.

It is claimed that this significant accomplishment was achieved just 94 days after the unit was delivered to the project site and is the shortest duration in which a GE H-class turbine has gone from arrival at site to first fire, globally.

The record speed with which the project is being executed has only been possible through the strong commitment of and collaboration among National Power Parks Management Company Limited (NPPMCL), GE and SEPCOIII Electric Power Construction Corporation.

NPPMCL CEO Rashid Mahmood Langrial said, “We are taking action to provide electricity to the people of Pakistan in order to end the load-shedding on an urgent basis.

Once complete and operating in combined cycle configuration, the Haveli Bahadur Shah power plant will help to meet up to 20 percent of the current electricity shortfall in Pakistan, providing the equivalent electricity needed to supply up to 2.5 million Pakistani homes using industry-leading technologies.”

GE Power’s Gas Power Systems president and CEO Joe Mastrangelo said, “Our goal is to deliver cost-effective, clean and reliable power to the people of Pakistan as quickly as possible, and we are proud to have worked with our customer, NPPMCL and the government to reach this significant milestone in record time.”

The HA is the result of almost $2 billion in research and development and offers leading efficiency, operational flexibility and low life-cycle costs.

In June 2016, GE set a world record for powering the world’s most efficient combined-cycle power plant in France – EDF’s Bouchain facility - with its HA technology.

Pakistan is the first country in the Middle East, North Africa, Turkey and South Asia region to use these turbines and the Haveli Bahadur Shah Power Plant project is expected to be even more efficient than France’s Bouchain.

The announcement of this milestone also follows the inauguration of the 1,180 MW Bhikki power plant. The project has started to generate up to 700MW of electricity and is powered by two GE HA turbines that are currently undergoing the final stages of scheduled testing.

GE Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan president and CEO Sarim Sheikh said, “We are pleased to announce this critical step towards the completion of the Haveli Bahadur Shah project just a week after the successful inauguration of the Bhikki power plant.”

GE entered an agreement to provide two high-efficiency 9HA gas turbines, one steam turbine and two heat recovery steam generators (HRSG) to SEPCOIII, the engineering, procurement and construction contractor for the Haveli Bahadur Shah Power Plant in December 2015.

The project was initiated by the ational Power Parks Management Company Limited, which is solely owned by the government of Pakistan through the Ministry of Water and Power, and was entirely funded through the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP).

Located in the district of Jhang, about 300 kilometres from Lahore, the 1,230MW project is the second of three power plants being set up in Pakistan that will run on imported supplies of liquefied natural gas (LNG).