Gwadar coal power plant tariff sought at Rs8.9 per unit for 30 years

ISLAMABAD: The CIHC Pak Power Company has submitted to Nepra the petition of coal-based power plant of 300 MW at Gwadar port seeking a levelised tariff of Rs8.9 per unit for 30 years. The internal rate of return (IRR) of the project will be 17 percent.

Nepra has been asked for the two-part tariff consisting Rs9.57 per unit for first 12.5 years and Rs8.49 per unit for the period from 12.5 years to 30 years. The fuel consumption of the plant will be based on the thermal efficiency of 37 percent and the coal of South Africa will be used for the power generation.

The project will be completed in 30 months at the cost of $542.32 million that include engineering, procurement, construction (EPC) cost of $369.88 million, interest during cost (IDC) of $32.90 million, expenditure in the heads of withholding tax, sales tax and custom duty valuing $40.11 million, non-EPC cost of $10.64million, project development costs of $21.03 million, company and sponsor cost of $26.84 million, insurance during construction $3.70 million, O & M mobilisation $6.49 million, non-reimbursable fuel and start-up cost prior to synchronisation $3.44 million, SINOSURE fee during construction $9.21 million, and financing fee and charges of $13.12 million.

Currently the whole Gwadar depends upon the 70 MW of electricity being imported from Iran. Of this, 14 MW is being provided to Gwadar port alone while the rest of 56 MW is being utilised by Makran Coastal areas. The project will be constructed on built, own, operate (BOO) basis based on imported coal.

The most shocking part of the petition is that debt payments, all taxes that include income tax, withholding tax, corporate tax, payments to workers welfare fund, Zakat deduction on dividends, Balochistan government taxes will be treated as pass-through items apart from the imported coal cost that is projects to be at $102 per metric ton. About 207 acres of land will be acquired for the project at the price of $5 million and government of Balochistan has started the process for the acquisition of land.