ISLAMABAD: The government received a poor response during the second phase of the auction for three non-functional power plants, as only one company submitted a bid for the JPCL Jamshoro plant, while no bids were received for the Muzaffargarh and Faisalabad facilities, in the auction held on Monday.
Under the directives of the Power Division, state-owned power generation companies (GENCOs) have launched the second phase of auctioning old and non-operational power plants. The initiative aims to streamline the energy sector and efficiently utilize financial resources by offloading idle and burdening assets.
Oopen bidding was held at the GENCO Holding Company Ltd. (GHCL) for the disposal of three obsolete and defunct plants, offered on an “as-is, where-is” basis. These plants have a combined installed capacity of 2,362 megawatts and a reserve price of Rs. 26.625 billion. The auction included the 880 MW Jamshoro Thermal Power Station, the 1,350 MW Muzaffargarh Thermal Power Station, and the 132 MW Steam Power Station in Faisalabad.
To ensure transparency, the bidding followed the “single stage, two envelope” method. While the original deadline for bid submission was May 19, 2025, the deadline for CPGCL’s Guddu power plants has been extended to May 30, 2025.
According to the Power Division, only M/s Siddiqsons (Karachi) submitted a bid for the JPCL Jamshoro plant. No bids were received for the Muzaffargarh and Faisalabad stations.
Following the successful completion of the first phase, Phase-2 of the auction includes additional plants from JPCL (GENCO-I), CPGCL (GENCO-III), and NPGCL (GENCO-II).
So far, a total of 29 power plant units with a combined generation capacity of 4,074 megawatts and a cumulative reserve price of Rs. 40.661 billion have been offered for auction. These plants are located in Jamshoro, Guddu, Muzaffargarh, Quetta, and Faisalabad.
In accordance with government instructions, bids were invited for power plants with a total installed capacity of 1,175 MW under Jamshoro Power Company Ltd. (GENCO-I), Central Power Generation Company Ltd. (GENCO-II) in Guddu, Northern Power Generation Company Ltd. (GENCO-III) in Muzaffargarh, and Lakhra Power Generation Company Ltd. (GENCO-IV) in Lakhra.
During the first phase, nine decommissioned and redundant power plants located in Kotri, Lakhra, Quetta, Sukkur, Multan, Faisalabad, and Shahdara (Lahore) were offered for disposal. That bidding process followed the International Competitive Bidding (ICB) model and was conducted under the single-stage, two-envelope procedure in accordance with the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) Rules of 2004.
