Thar Coal Power Project
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Engro Powergen Thar Private Limited (EPTL) was formed in 2014 to set up a 2x330MW power project in Thar Block II, Sindh, Pakistan. The company is a joint venture between Engro Powergen Ltd (EPL) (with 50.1% ownership), China Machinery Engineering Corporation (CMEC), Habib Bank Ltd (HBL), and Liberty Mills Limited.
EPTL’s power project will be the pioneering project in generating electricity using indigenous lignite coal from the Tharparkar district. An opencast mine in Thar is being developed by Sindh Engro Coal Mining Company (SECMC), which will supply 3.8 Mt/a coal to EPTL. The mining project is currently in the overburden removal stage and is expected to achieve commercial operations by June 2019.
EPTL’s power project will be the pioneering project in generating electricity using indigenous lignite coal from the Tharparkar district. An opencast mine in Thar is being developed by Sindh Engro Coal Mining Company (SECMC), which will supply 3.8 Mt/a coal to EPTL. The mining project is currently in the overburden removal stage and is expected to achieve commercial operations by June 2019.
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GE clinches $60mln coal power plant deal
ISLAMABAD: US-based digital industrial firm General Electric clinched a $60 million of deal to provide advanced boiler technology and post-purchase services to a 330-megawatt coal-fired power project in Thar district.
GE announced the agreement on Wednesday under which it will provide its advanced circulating fluidised bed boiler and its steam turbine generator technology to Thar Energy Limited (TEL) power plant, which is owned by Thar Energy Limited. Lignite coal contains up to 50 percent moisture and low ash content, making it significantly challenging to burn reliably.
Thar Energy is a consortium of Hub Power Company Limited (Hubco), Fauji Fertilizer Limited and China Machinery and Engineering Corporation.
The power plant will use local lignite coal from the Thar Block II mine and supply power to the national grid under a 30-year power purchase agreement. The 330 MW TEL power plant is expected to commence commercial operations in March 2021.
TEL is a part of the larger 1,320 megawatts (four 330 MW power plants) integrated-mining and power plant plan under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor program. Under the agreement, GE will provide critical services to support maintenance outages, including the supply of spare parts, on-site inspections and advisory services for improved operations of both the boiler and steam turbine generator at the TEL power plant for 12 years.
GE’s boiler technology has a successful track record of burning similarly challenging fuels in Europe and North America. Pakistan has about 180 billion tons of lignite reserves and GE’s technology can help the country use the indigenous resource instead of importing more expensive fuels to increase energy independence and save foreign exchange reserves.
GE and Hub Power Services Limited – a wholly owned subsidiary of Hubco – also signed a broader operations and maintenance (O&M) collaboration agreement under which the two companies intend to explore opportunities to jointly provide O&M services to coal-fired power plants in Pakistan and the Middle East and North Africa region.
Khalid Mansoor, chief executive officer of Hubco said GE technology has demonstrated its long-term efficiency and reliability using similar fuels internationally.
ISLAMABAD: US-based digital industrial firm General Electric clinched a $60 million of deal to provide advanced boiler technology and post-purchase services to a 330-megawatt coal-fired power project in Thar district.
GE announced the agreement on Wednesday under which it will provide its advanced circulating fluidised bed boiler and its steam turbine generator technology to Thar Energy Limited (TEL) power plant, which is owned by Thar Energy Limited. Lignite coal contains up to 50 percent moisture and low ash content, making it significantly challenging to burn reliably.
Thar Energy is a consortium of Hub Power Company Limited (Hubco), Fauji Fertilizer Limited and China Machinery and Engineering Corporation.
The power plant will use local lignite coal from the Thar Block II mine and supply power to the national grid under a 30-year power purchase agreement. The 330 MW TEL power plant is expected to commence commercial operations in March 2021.
TEL is a part of the larger 1,320 megawatts (four 330 MW power plants) integrated-mining and power plant plan under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor program. Under the agreement, GE will provide critical services to support maintenance outages, including the supply of spare parts, on-site inspections and advisory services for improved operations of both the boiler and steam turbine generator at the TEL power plant for 12 years.
GE’s boiler technology has a successful track record of burning similarly challenging fuels in Europe and North America. Pakistan has about 180 billion tons of lignite reserves and GE’s technology can help the country use the indigenous resource instead of importing more expensive fuels to increase energy independence and save foreign exchange reserves.
GE and Hub Power Services Limited – a wholly owned subsidiary of Hubco – also signed a broader operations and maintenance (O&M) collaboration agreement under which the two companies intend to explore opportunities to jointly provide O&M services to coal-fired power plants in Pakistan and the Middle East and North Africa region.
Khalid Mansoor, chief executive officer of Hubco said GE technology has demonstrated its long-term efficiency and reliability using similar fuels internationally.
ghazi52
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Thar coal-based plant to start supplying power in January
THARPARKAR: After succeeding in the first-ever Thar coal-based power project of the country and making it a potential destination for power sector investors, Sindh Engro Coal Mining Company (SECMC) is persuading more investors to go there and emphasised that the next projects should be awarded after competitive bidding to get rationalised prices.
“All the projects which are not installed up till now should go through competitive process, everything should go through competition. All the renewable projects should go through competition and thermal projects too. The best possible rates should be determined,” Shamsuddin Shaikh, CEO of SECMC, said while talking to a Islamabad-based group of journalists in Tharparkar.
“I know the future belongs to renewable and not fossil fuel. Today the price of renewable (wind, solar) is around four cent/unit,” he said, adding, “This (coal) is very important for us, because power plants run 24 hours a day, while the wind and solar cannot.”
Under the umbrella of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), the first-ever Thar-based lignite coal power plant of 660 megawatts will start adding power to the National grid in January 2019, as less than seven percent work on powerhouse and its coal mine remains, he said. “Prime Minister Imran Khan is going to come here when we start the project (adding power to grid) in January 2019,” he said.
Thar is now open and it has good quality of access roads being built by the Sindh government. “We came here first and worked on the block and succeeded. Now anybody can come here. Hence, we are calling upon the government that for the next projects coming here, their prices should be rationalised and we would also rationalise our prices,” the CEO said.
He said that in Pakistan, the earlier imported coal-based power plants were ‘ill conceived’; they should have all been based in Thar. “These installed plants are in Karachi, Port Qasim, Hub and Sahiwal. The Sahiwal coal power project is a ‘national suicide’ and it should have been built in Thar,” he said. Shamsuddin said Sahiwal is a green area, and setting up a plant there was not a good idea.
Regarding Nepra’s tariff determination for projects, he said, “I don’t think, Nepra determines the right price, it hasn’t the ability to give the right price, so it has given projects at escalated prices.”
He also advised that investors should also reduce their rate of return to make the projects more viable. “Nepra, CPPAG and all these people should sit together and go through the competitive bidding. Open it (Thar) for all,” he said.
He further said that all this coal would go waste unless we go for its other uses. He said that apart from electricity generation, we can make plastic, gas, fertilisers and other things out of it. “Since Pakistan’s natural gas is fast depleting, while we are producing fertilisers from gas, so it would be a challenge for us and our agriculture sector. We cannot solely rely upon its import, while LNG is too expensive. If something odd happens at international level (sanctions, etc), then how would we import urea?” he said.
“This is the right time to think about coal into gas and gas into fertilisers, as in next eight years, our natural gas would get almost depleted,” he said. To a question regarding carbon dioxide emission from coal plants, he said they still remained under the number they were supposed to maintain under the Paris accord on environment. He said Pakistan has very low carbon footprint, as it has much little coal consumption. “90 kilometres from here, at the other side of the border (in India), there are hundreds of power plants in Gujarat, Rajasthan and Maharashtra. We don’t produce carbon dioxide, but we are on the receiving end from there,” he said. He proposed that all coal projects in Pakistan should use at least 20 percent Thar coal by blending it with imported coal, which will save foreign exchange and indigenous resources would be utilised.
Shamsuddin said Pakistan has 180 billion tons of coal reserves, of which Thar holds 175 billion tons, which is 50 billion ton of oil equivalent (TOC) that is more than Saudi Arabia and Iran oil reserves. He said Thar is important for Pakistan, but electricity from here at high cost is of no use. “We are very conscious about it. Pakistan’s power sector is bankrupt, as today we are sitting on more than a trillion rupees circular debt. The reason is that our generation cost is very high, there are line losses and power theft too. The government should work on controlling it and bringing down the cost,” he said.
Regarding its 660 MW lignite coal power plant, he said that its power project is 94 percent completed while its coal mine project has achieved 92 percent and both are five months ahead of their schedule and will add the first electron from Thar to the national grid by January, 2019. Engro Power Thar Limited (EPTL) and SECMC are the largest private investment under CPEC, and the only investments which are 95 percent owned by Pakistanis.
On August 1, 2018, EPTL successfully connected its power plant with the national grid to receive back-feed power supply for plant start-up. The next part of this dream will be achieved by December 2018 or January 2019, when the first electron from Thar coal will be added to the national grid.
Talking about the progress on mine project, he said that there is 92 percent progress on mine with the capacity of 3.8 million tons per annum. The progress on mine project is four months ahead of schedule and the project cost is 20 percent less than the approved cost. “Currently, we have removed approximately 154 meters of soil and we would be able to extract coal from 160 meters,” he said. He said that coal from Thar is cheaper, indigenous and abundant resource now after the success of first ever large scale open pit coalmine in Pakistan. “We have set an example for the world that Pakistan is an attractive market for investment in coal mining and coal-based power production,” he said.
Shamsuddin said the Sindh government owns 54 percent of the project, but unmatched political support has been received from all political parties and governments for the Thar coal project. He added that SECMC was created with the vision to develop a technically and commercially viable coal mining project in Thar Block-II to bring energy security to Pakistan. He said the total reserves of block II are sufficient to support 5,000MW energy for 50 years, enough to pull the country out of the energy crisis.
Shamsuddin informed that out of current 4,400 workers working at the SECMC site, 75 percent workers are natives of Thar. Engro is operating 24 schools, constructing a 250-bed hospital and several water projects for the natives of Thar.
THARPARKAR: After succeeding in the first-ever Thar coal-based power project of the country and making it a potential destination for power sector investors, Sindh Engro Coal Mining Company (SECMC) is persuading more investors to go there and emphasised that the next projects should be awarded after competitive bidding to get rationalised prices.
“All the projects which are not installed up till now should go through competitive process, everything should go through competition. All the renewable projects should go through competition and thermal projects too. The best possible rates should be determined,” Shamsuddin Shaikh, CEO of SECMC, said while talking to a Islamabad-based group of journalists in Tharparkar.
“I know the future belongs to renewable and not fossil fuel. Today the price of renewable (wind, solar) is around four cent/unit,” he said, adding, “This (coal) is very important for us, because power plants run 24 hours a day, while the wind and solar cannot.”
Under the umbrella of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), the first-ever Thar-based lignite coal power plant of 660 megawatts will start adding power to the National grid in January 2019, as less than seven percent work on powerhouse and its coal mine remains, he said. “Prime Minister Imran Khan is going to come here when we start the project (adding power to grid) in January 2019,” he said.
Thar is now open and it has good quality of access roads being built by the Sindh government. “We came here first and worked on the block and succeeded. Now anybody can come here. Hence, we are calling upon the government that for the next projects coming here, their prices should be rationalised and we would also rationalise our prices,” the CEO said.
He said that in Pakistan, the earlier imported coal-based power plants were ‘ill conceived’; they should have all been based in Thar. “These installed plants are in Karachi, Port Qasim, Hub and Sahiwal. The Sahiwal coal power project is a ‘national suicide’ and it should have been built in Thar,” he said. Shamsuddin said Sahiwal is a green area, and setting up a plant there was not a good idea.
Regarding Nepra’s tariff determination for projects, he said, “I don’t think, Nepra determines the right price, it hasn’t the ability to give the right price, so it has given projects at escalated prices.”
He also advised that investors should also reduce their rate of return to make the projects more viable. “Nepra, CPPAG and all these people should sit together and go through the competitive bidding. Open it (Thar) for all,” he said.
He further said that all this coal would go waste unless we go for its other uses. He said that apart from electricity generation, we can make plastic, gas, fertilisers and other things out of it. “Since Pakistan’s natural gas is fast depleting, while we are producing fertilisers from gas, so it would be a challenge for us and our agriculture sector. We cannot solely rely upon its import, while LNG is too expensive. If something odd happens at international level (sanctions, etc), then how would we import urea?” he said.
“This is the right time to think about coal into gas and gas into fertilisers, as in next eight years, our natural gas would get almost depleted,” he said. To a question regarding carbon dioxide emission from coal plants, he said they still remained under the number they were supposed to maintain under the Paris accord on environment. He said Pakistan has very low carbon footprint, as it has much little coal consumption. “90 kilometres from here, at the other side of the border (in India), there are hundreds of power plants in Gujarat, Rajasthan and Maharashtra. We don’t produce carbon dioxide, but we are on the receiving end from there,” he said. He proposed that all coal projects in Pakistan should use at least 20 percent Thar coal by blending it with imported coal, which will save foreign exchange and indigenous resources would be utilised.
Shamsuddin said Pakistan has 180 billion tons of coal reserves, of which Thar holds 175 billion tons, which is 50 billion ton of oil equivalent (TOC) that is more than Saudi Arabia and Iran oil reserves. He said Thar is important for Pakistan, but electricity from here at high cost is of no use. “We are very conscious about it. Pakistan’s power sector is bankrupt, as today we are sitting on more than a trillion rupees circular debt. The reason is that our generation cost is very high, there are line losses and power theft too. The government should work on controlling it and bringing down the cost,” he said.
Regarding its 660 MW lignite coal power plant, he said that its power project is 94 percent completed while its coal mine project has achieved 92 percent and both are five months ahead of their schedule and will add the first electron from Thar to the national grid by January, 2019. Engro Power Thar Limited (EPTL) and SECMC are the largest private investment under CPEC, and the only investments which are 95 percent owned by Pakistanis.
On August 1, 2018, EPTL successfully connected its power plant with the national grid to receive back-feed power supply for plant start-up. The next part of this dream will be achieved by December 2018 or January 2019, when the first electron from Thar coal will be added to the national grid.
Talking about the progress on mine project, he said that there is 92 percent progress on mine with the capacity of 3.8 million tons per annum. The progress on mine project is four months ahead of schedule and the project cost is 20 percent less than the approved cost. “Currently, we have removed approximately 154 meters of soil and we would be able to extract coal from 160 meters,” he said. He said that coal from Thar is cheaper, indigenous and abundant resource now after the success of first ever large scale open pit coalmine in Pakistan. “We have set an example for the world that Pakistan is an attractive market for investment in coal mining and coal-based power production,” he said.
Shamsuddin said the Sindh government owns 54 percent of the project, but unmatched political support has been received from all political parties and governments for the Thar coal project. He added that SECMC was created with the vision to develop a technically and commercially viable coal mining project in Thar Block-II to bring energy security to Pakistan. He said the total reserves of block II are sufficient to support 5,000MW energy for 50 years, enough to pull the country out of the energy crisis.
Shamsuddin informed that out of current 4,400 workers working at the SECMC site, 75 percent workers are natives of Thar. Engro is operating 24 schools, constructing a 250-bed hospital and several water projects for the natives of Thar.
ghazi52
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HYDERABAD: A group of 73 engineers who were sent to China for training in operation and management of coal power plant have returned after completing their six-month training.
The move [to send them China for training] aimed to create highly skilled human resource from Tharparkar and other districts of Sindh.
Confirming their return to homeland from China, an official of Sindh Engro Coal Mining Company (SECMC) and Engro Powergen Thar Limited (EPTL) said that the engineers would take over operation and maintenance of newly built 660 megawatt power plant of EPTL at Thar Coal Block II.
Three women were also among those 73 engineers who have were sent to China under the Thar Project and they received training at Yunnan Xunjiansi and Xinjyi power plants. The most of them were from Tharparkar and Umerkot districts.
ghazi52
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Karachi, 12 December 2018:
General Qamar Javed Bajwa, Chief of Army Staff (COAS) visited Thar Coal Project. He was given detailed briefing on the progress of the pilot projects. Talking on the occasion, he said that internal security situation of Pakistan has largely improved paving way for foreign investment. We will continue to play our part in ensuring secure environment for business and entrepreneurship in Pakistan by both local and foreign investors. Lieutenant General Tariq Khan (Retired), Managing Director Fauji Fertilizer Company received COAS upon his arrival.
General Qamar Javed Bajwa, Chief of Army Staff (COAS) visited Thar Coal Project. He was given detailed briefing on the progress of the pilot projects. Talking on the occasion, he said that internal security situation of Pakistan has largely improved paving way for foreign investment. We will continue to play our part in ensuring secure environment for business and entrepreneurship in Pakistan by both local and foreign investors. Lieutenant General Tariq Khan (Retired), Managing Director Fauji Fertilizer Company received COAS upon his arrival.
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Thar coal project starts electricity production
The Thar Coal project has started electricity generation of approximately 330 megawatt. The power supply to national grid station has also commenced from the power plant.
The project's workers celebrated the power generation to national grid station.
- The Thar Coal project has started electricity generation of approximately 330 megawatt.
- On the occasion, Minister of Energy for Sindh, Imtiaz Sheikh confirming the electricity generation from Thar Coal project congratulated Pakistan People’s Party leadership
- He also stated that Thar coal project will help eradicate the energy crisis from country
The Thar Coal project has started electricity generation of approximately 330 megawatt. The power supply to national grid station has also commenced from the power plant.
The project's workers celebrated the power generation to national grid station.
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Thar coal project starts electricity production
- The Thar Coal project has started electricity generation of approximately 330 megawatt.
- On the occasion, Minister of Energy for Sindh, Imtiaz Sheikh confirming the electricity generation from Thar Coal project congratulated Pakistan People’s Party leadership
- He also stated that Thar coal project will help eradicate the energy crisis from country
The Thar Coal project has started electricity generation of approximately 330 megawatt. The power supply to national grid station has also commenced from the power plant.
The project's workers celebrated the power generation to national grid station.
This is a remarkable step forward.
ghazi52
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The company will test the second plant in late April.
“We are four months ahead of the timeline set for switching on the power plants,” he said. “The project is almost done well within the budgeted cost (investment) of $1.1 billion while we have significantly saved cost of the mining project, which was originally estimated at $845 million.”
Both the plants will be connected to the national grid one by one through the 232km Thar-Mitiari transmission line during their testing phase.
In June, both the plants would formally start commercial production “as the commercial operation date (COD) of the first mine-mouth power project is set for June 2019,” he said.
Pakistan discovered the Thar coalfields in 1991. These contain the world’s seventh largest coal reserves of 175 billion tons, more than the combined oil reserves of energy-rich Saudi Arabia and Iran, and 68 times higher than Pakistan’s total gas reserves. Singh Engro Coal Mining Company (SECMC) – a group of seven stakeholders including the government of Sindh with 51% majority stake as well as Engro, the Habib Group and Hubco – has dug 148 metres down block-II in Thar coalfields in the past nine years.
SECMC has been allotted block-II which carries only 1% of the total reserves in Thar. “Coal deposits in block-II are enough to produce 5,000MW of electricity for the next 50 years,” Syed said. “We have invested a lot of time, money and human resources to make the dream come true.”
The two plants need 12,500 tons of coal each day (or 3.8 million tons per annum) to produce 660MW of electricity. This is one of the early harvest projects marked under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) – a multibillion-dollar initiative of Beijing aimed at developing Pakistan’s infrastructure and power sectors.
“The two projects (power plants and coal mining) carry around $800 million in foreign loans, mostly from China,” he said, adding that the projects had a ratio of 25% equity and 75% debt.
The mine-mouth power plant would produce electricity at a 30-year levellised tariff of 11 US cents per unit (or Rs13 per kilowatt), he said, adding that the share of power from coal-fired projects was set to increase to 11% in the near future from around 7% at present. “It stood at around 1% two years ago.” However, Pakistan would be far away from the average 40% of electricity from coal-fired projects, Syed pointed out. He called Thar coal the answer to the existing power crisis in the country. “There is still a shortfall of 4,000MW between power demand and supply,” he said.
He pointed out that the locally produced coal, which is better known as lignite, was best for power production and similar coal was being utilised by European nations such as Germany and Poland. He shared that Thar coal would, in the long run, reduce burden on the country’s foreign currency reserves as Pakistan imported a huge quantity of oil and gas for power production.
“We dream of producing a total of 5,000 MW through the supply of 30 million tons of coal by the time fifth phase is completed. However, timelines for the fifth and the last phase are yet to be determined,” he said.
“We are four months ahead of the timeline set for switching on the power plants,” he said. “The project is almost done well within the budgeted cost (investment) of $1.1 billion while we have significantly saved cost of the mining project, which was originally estimated at $845 million.”
Both the plants will be connected to the national grid one by one through the 232km Thar-Mitiari transmission line during their testing phase.
In June, both the plants would formally start commercial production “as the commercial operation date (COD) of the first mine-mouth power project is set for June 2019,” he said.
Pakistan discovered the Thar coalfields in 1991. These contain the world’s seventh largest coal reserves of 175 billion tons, more than the combined oil reserves of energy-rich Saudi Arabia and Iran, and 68 times higher than Pakistan’s total gas reserves. Singh Engro Coal Mining Company (SECMC) – a group of seven stakeholders including the government of Sindh with 51% majority stake as well as Engro, the Habib Group and Hubco – has dug 148 metres down block-II in Thar coalfields in the past nine years.
SECMC has been allotted block-II which carries only 1% of the total reserves in Thar. “Coal deposits in block-II are enough to produce 5,000MW of electricity for the next 50 years,” Syed said. “We have invested a lot of time, money and human resources to make the dream come true.”
The two plants need 12,500 tons of coal each day (or 3.8 million tons per annum) to produce 660MW of electricity. This is one of the early harvest projects marked under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) – a multibillion-dollar initiative of Beijing aimed at developing Pakistan’s infrastructure and power sectors.
“The two projects (power plants and coal mining) carry around $800 million in foreign loans, mostly from China,” he said, adding that the projects had a ratio of 25% equity and 75% debt.
The mine-mouth power plant would produce electricity at a 30-year levellised tariff of 11 US cents per unit (or Rs13 per kilowatt), he said, adding that the share of power from coal-fired projects was set to increase to 11% in the near future from around 7% at present. “It stood at around 1% two years ago.” However, Pakistan would be far away from the average 40% of electricity from coal-fired projects, Syed pointed out. He called Thar coal the answer to the existing power crisis in the country. “There is still a shortfall of 4,000MW between power demand and supply,” he said.
He pointed out that the locally produced coal, which is better known as lignite, was best for power production and similar coal was being utilised by European nations such as Germany and Poland. He shared that Thar coal would, in the long run, reduce burden on the country’s foreign currency reserves as Pakistan imported a huge quantity of oil and gas for power production.
“We dream of producing a total of 5,000 MW through the supply of 30 million tons of coal by the time fifth phase is completed. However, timelines for the fifth and the last phase are yet to be determined,” he said.
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