Seven months after inauguration: ship-mounted RPP not yet started commercial operation

The world's first ship-mounted power plant, rented by government of Pakistan from Turkish company, has yet not started commercial operation and supply of electricity to the national grid even seven month after its inauguration, Business Recorder learnt on Monday.
The 232 MW Rental Power Plant (RPP) has a stand by arrangements for generation of 100 MW at another ship to cater any possible emergency requirements. Well-placed sources told Business Recorder that the RPP, named as "Kaya Bey", has just initiated auxiliary generation to keep its minor turbines functional, while it has yet not started commercial power generation and supply to Pepco.
As per the agreement, the rental power plant would provide electricity to Pepco and the tariff would be adjusted as per the price of fuel. The sources said that per unit electricity from this RPP would cost Rs 13 as per the prevailing oil prices in Pakistan. Sources said that Turkish firm Karkey Karadeniz Electrik Uretim managing its own security system at the plant.
They said there is no commercial generation by the plant, whereas it is producing just 15 to 20 megawatts, of which 10 megawatts is being supplied to the national grid while reaming power is being consumed at the ship to fulfil its routine needs. The ship-mounted power plant had arrived at Karachi Port on November 18, 2010 and was inaugurated on November 21 by the then Federal Minister for Water and Power Raja Parvaiz Ashraf along with Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah. The plant will provide 232 megawatt units electricity to the national grid.
Sources in KESC said that as per the 5-year power purchase agreement inked with WAPDA in 2010, the KESC would continue to receive 650 megawatts. The operation of the RPP would not provide any additional electricity to Karachi. KESC Spokesman Amin-u-Rehman told Business Recorder that the utility would not receive any additional electricity from the RPP.
He said power demand of the city has reached 2500 MW, and power generation stand at 2150 MW, depicting around 350 megawatts shortfall. The electricity shortfall is causing four to six hours load shedding across the city. Pepco is supplying 650 megawatts to KESC while it gets 248 megawatts from IPPs (Tapal and Gul Ahmed), 50 MW from Pakistan Steel Mills, 14 MW from Anud Power, 400 KW from wind power and 3 MW from APTMA.
Bin Qasim Power Plant (BQPP) of KESC is generating 650 MW while Korangi Thermal Power Station is generating 190 MW and 80 MW is generated by Korangi Gas Turbine. It is worth mentioning here that the incumbent management of the utility failed to add new units in its power generation system during the last three years, depending mostly on purchasing electricity from other sources.
A staunch critic of the RPPs, Chaudhary Mazhar Ali, General Secretary KESC Shareholders Association, said that the government should utilise its own resources to generate electricity instead of depending on RPPs. "Why the government depending on the RPPs, as the electricity generated through the plants is very costly, which ultimately affect the consumers. The RPPs including Turkish Keya Bey are meant for embezzling money," Mazhar alleged.
He claimed that some high ups of the incumbent government had shares in the Turkish ship-based power plant. When contacted, spokesman of Turkish firm, Karkey Karadeniz Electrik Uretim, A. S Asad Mehmood said the ship has a capacity to generate 232 MW with 100 MW extra installed capacity. To question about the commercial operation, he claimed that the RPP had met Commercial Operations Date (COD) by April 13, 2011. When asked how many megawatts the RPP is generating on commercial basis or supplying to Pepco, he had no answer.