Chinese firm seeks licence for 40MW solid waste plant

KARACHI: A Chinese firm sought generation licence from the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority to set up 40 megawatts of municipal solid waste power plant, a document showed on Wednesday.

Lahore Xingzhong Renewable Energy Company, a subsidiary of Chengdu Xingrong Environmental Co., Ltd., planned to set up the plant at an estimated cost of $140 million. The solid waste-to-energy plant is expected to achieve commercial operation by the end of April 2021.

Nepra, in January, announced a levelised tariff of $0.10/kilowatt-hour for municipal solid waste power plants based on an operational period of 25 years. Overall production capacity for such plants has been capped at 250MW for the entire country. Share of each province and federal territory will be 50MW.

The tariff assessment was based on the project cost of $3.5 million per megawatt, keeping in view the available reference prices in the region.

In Pakistan, more than 20 million tons of municipal solid waste is generated with annual 2.4 percent growth. All major cities – Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar and Quetta – are facing enormous challenges in tackling the problem of urban waste. Thousands of people die every year due to waste-related diseases.

Considering the environmental issues, most of the countries in the region have already announced the tariff for municipal waste power plants and they are reaping dual benefits with the disposal of garbage and generation of electricity through this garbage.

Chengdu Xingrong, a listed company, is a large-scale comprehensive water utilities and environmental service provider in China, according to its website. It is primarily engaged in the services of production and supply of tap water, sewage treatment, reclaimed water reuse, sludge treatment, landfill leachate treatment, and waste-to-energy.