ISLAMABAD: Three under-construction 3600 MW LNG-fired power plants face troubles as they are still on the trial runs that could lead to a five-month delay in their commercial operations, it was learnt.
Official sources at Central Power Purchasing Agency (CPPA), on anonymity, said that three LNG-based power plants in Punjab have failed to start working due to issues in their trial runs.
Currently, three LNG-based power plants are working on test-run that has prolonged owing to some known and unknown reasons and they have failed to achieve projected electricity production.
Sources said the two federally-funded LNG-fired combined cycle power plants in Balloki near Kasur and in Haveli Bahadur Shah near Jhang might delay their commercial operations by up to five months. They said both plants were originally scheduled to come online by the end of January 2018, adding 2,400 megawatts of electricity to the national grid. Similarly, the trial run of the first phase of 1100 MW Bhikki Power Plant – a flagship project of the Punjab government was initially expected to be completed in March, but despite several attempts the Bhikki LNG-based thermal plant failed to supply the projected electricity to the national grid and is still on a test run, sources said.
It is to note here that former prime minister Nawaz Sharif has inaugurated all three plants with fanfare when they were put to initial test run – much before their formal Commercial Operation Date (COD). During the first phase of the trial-runs, these plants have developed mechanical and technical faults.
Leading to Nawaz, then-premier, calling a special meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Energy (CCE) to find out why he was led to conduct early inauguration of the power project in Punjab.
It is worth mentioning that these three power plants with a total capacity of 3,600MW were considered crucial to ending the load shedding during the 5-year tenure of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government.
These LNG-fired power projects were part of government’s plan to increase power generation by 10,000 MW before March 2018.
Besides, Haveli Bahadur Shah plant, after completion, will save a huge amount of 6.6 six billion rupees every year through its outstanding production capability. Similarly, Bhikki power plant upon achieving full capacity is expected to supply power to approximately 2.5 million Pakistani households.
