Guddu 747MW GT-14 incident: GHCL’s CEO makes accusation against Power Division

ISLAMABAD: Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Genco Holding Co Limited (GHCL), Muhammad Imran, has reportedly accused Power Division of deliberately holding him responsible for M/s Guddu 747 MW GT-14 incident, which caused a loss of over Rs10 billion to the national exchequer, well informed sources told Business Recorder.

On March 31, 2022, Power Division, through a letter titled “directions of Power Division for action against CEO GHCL under inquiry committee report regarding GT-14 of 747 MW, CCPP, Guddu” had directed that CEO GHCL may be suspended with immediate effect; and Board of Directors (BoD) GHCL was advised to hold Efficiency & Discipline (E&D) inquiry against him for failing to supervise/monitor the operations of CPGCL since COD of Guddu 747MW power plant and then failure to get necessary actions like proper inquiry, claim with GE etc. in place resulting in possible loss to the public sector power plant.

The 747MW Combined Cycle Power Plant (CCPP) Guddu was commissioned in December 2014. It consists of two gas turbines (GT-14 and GT-15, GE USA manufacture) and one steam turbine (ST-16, HEI, China manufacture).

On February 7, 2021, ST-16 tripped on over-flux and GT-14 was desynchronized. On Feb 12, 2021, operation of GT-14 was stopped by the CPGCL management due to abnormal turbine behaviour. To discover the actual cause of the problem, GE experts started a “borescope inspection on Feb 14, 2021” and the CEO CPGCL sent the “incident report” of this event, along with the “Borescope Inspection Report”, conducted by GE to GHCL on March 4, 2021.

According to CEO, GHCL, on receipt of these reports, GHCL immediately constituted an inquiry committee on March 5, 2022 under the convenorship of Engr Sabeeh-uz-Zaman Faruqui CEO, NPGCL (GENCO-III). The inquiry committee submitted its report on March 19, 2022, in which the cause of the damage incident was identified.

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The report was presented to CPGCL’s Board, which in turn, constituted an independent inquiry committee on May 28, 2021 under the convenorship of Professor Dr Tabrez Aslam Shami, former professor and Dean of Department of Electrical Engineering, UET Lahore. This inquiry committee exhaustively looked at the incident, and also sought the assistance of an independent consultant, and submitted its detailed report, along with recommendations to the BoD CPGCL on July 8, 2021. In light of report, CPGCL started work on immediate repair of GT-14 as soon as possible. He has requested Secretary Power to review this report, which contains important findings and recommendations.

Thereafter, whilst he was not serving as CEO, GHCL, an inquiry committee under the convenorship of Dr Niaz A Mernon, Chief Technical Officer GHCL was constituted by GHCL on August 16, 2021. This inquiry was apparently instructed at the insistence of the Senate Standing Committee on Power.

The Terms of Reference (ToRs) of this inquiry were to examine and evaluate the role and responsibilities of GE under the Contractual Service Agreement (CSA) between GE and CPGCL. The report by this inquiry committee was presented to CPGCL’s Board on November 18, 2021, however, the Board concluded that the inquiry was incomplete in certain respects, and therefore, asked the committee to further inquire into the matter. Thus, the final i.e. the fourth inquiry report on this issue was completed on February 21, 2022 and sent to the Power Division on the next date i.e. February 22, 2022.

According to CEO, he resumed duties as CEO, GHCL on September 13, 2021, at which time the arrangements for repair and rehabilitation of GT-14 were under way.

“I have felt that my letter to the Power Division was not appreciated in the spirit that it was sent and therefore I have been singled out for disciplinary action on account of damage to GT-14, where no negligence on my part or that of GHCL has been found in the four inquiry reports,” he said, adding that even if GHCL was to be held responsible, GHCL had a complete corporate setup, with different officials tasked with oversight of various aspects of the GENCOs and one person, or the CEO cannot be singled out in the whole company for disciplinary measures, particularly, where no nexus between the events in question and him has been alleged, much less established.

CEO argued that his apprehensions in this regard were further reinforced when on April 8, 2022, GHCL’s Company Secretary moved a resolution by circulation, for approval of the GHCL Board, on the directions of Additional Secretary, Power Division, to immediately suspend him, even though a meeting of the BoD was scheduled on April 13, 2022.

This was followed by a letter in the latter half of the day issued by the Power Division to the BoD, GHCL, in which the impartiality of the BoD was questioned and again the directions were issued to comply immediately with Secretary’s orders. The manner, haste, and tenor of these letters show an undue haste to remove him from his position without any due process.

CEO has requested Secretary Power to review and recall the orders with respect to action against him. He has also sought an opportunity of a personal hearing to further explain the matter.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022