SECMC mulls slashing power generation in Thar Block-II

KARACHI: Sindh Engro Coal Mining Company (SECMC) is considering reducing its electricity generation from originally planned 5,280 MW to 2,640 MW in Thar Block-II, as evacuation of power remains a major impediment, The News has learnt.

SECMC, being the pioneer of coal-fired power generation in Thar, had initially planned to generate the aforementioned wattage in Thar Block-II, one of the thirteen coal blocks allocated to the company.

However, owing to constraints related to evacuation of power produced and generation capacity as well as issues arising from local climate, SECMC is considering to bring down it down to against the original plan.

The company has already commissioned 2x330 MW units in July 2019, while another 2x330 MW facility is set to commence operations by the end of this fiscal year.

This information was shared with a select group of journalists that visited the coalfield and power plant of the company recently.

Briefing the journalists, Ahmed Muneeb, Director Technical SECMC, extensively covered the historical and present aspects of Thar coal, highlighting its significance to ensure energy security of Pakistan.

“We are assessing the situation and may not go as per our initial plan of establishing 5,280 MW plants,” he said. “The mine will be expanded to a production capacity of 15 million tons/annum and there will be massive power generation capacity in the country soon, while transmission and distribution system is not ready to evacuate such quantum of power.”

He said out of a total of 186 billion tons in the country, Thar had 175 billion tons of coal reserves, sufficient to meet nation’s energy needs for many centuries.

Pakistan was behind India in utilising coal for power generation as the latter had started it fifty years back, SECMC official said, adding, Indian region adjacent to Thar had ten percent coal reserves of the total coal reserves in the region with Thar having 90 percent share.

India installed power plants and utilised these coal reserves and now it was importing the rocky fuel to run those plants.

To a query whether Thar coal could be exported to India, SECMC official said that it was a policy issue, and only federal government could decide about it.

About the SECMC mining project, Muneeb said 3.8 Mtpa coal was extracted in Phase-I and expansion of mine to 7.6 Mtps was in progress.

“As far as power project is concerned, 2x330 MW units have been commissioned and are supplying power to the national grid since July 2019 and more than 10,000 GWH of electricity has been produced so far.”

As part of corporate social responsibility (CSR), Thar Foundation has been established by SECMC and Government of Sindh together along with the companies involved in the Thar Coal Project to benefit principal stakeholders of the project, especially the people of Tharparkar, through graduated and sustainable interventions.