Arif Habib to set up power plant with Chinese funding
KARACHI: Pakistan is set to attract more Chinese investment for setting up another Thar coal-fired power plant as the country seeks to aggressively utilise indigenous energy resources to reduce its reliance on imported fuels.
“Arif Habib Corporation Limited is going to set up a 330-megawatt (MW) Thar coal-fired power plant,” Arif Habib, Chairman of the diversified business house, said during a visit to the Karachi Press Club on Tuesday.
The project would be located in the Thar block-II and attract Chinese financing, he said.
The Chinese government is investing billions of dollars in Pakistan’s ports, roads, railway infrastructure and power projects. The investment includes over $60 billion earmarked for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) apart from the significant amount reserved for non-CPEC projects.
Habib said his company would soon submit an application with the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) for setting a power tariff.
“In the next six months, the process of arranging finances (equity and debt) will be initiated,” he informed reporters, adding “the financing will take around a year.” The plant will start production in 2020-21.
Recently, the power sector regulator revised downwards the tariffs for Thar coal-based power projects, setting them in the range of Rs7.58-7.79 per kilowatt-hour (kWh). These are up to 18.5% lower than the previous tariff range of Rs8.33-9.56 per kWh, which expired in January 2017.
The government had so far approved four Thar coal-fired power projects with total capacity of 2,640MW, a Nepra document revealed.
First of these is the 330MW Engro PowerGen Thar, which is scheduled to kick-start production by June 2019. Engro will add one more unit of the same capacity later.
ThalNova Power Thar and Thar Energy Limited will also launch single units of 330MW each. Apart from these, the Thar Coal Block-I Power Generation Co is set to launch two units of 660MW each.
Lucky and Siddiqsons are also constructing power projects based on Thar coal, but at a distance from the coalmines. Thar coal-mining and power projects are financed by the Chinese government and private investors.