Prime Minister Imran Khan will pay a visit to the first-ever Thar based 660MW Lignite Coal Power plant in January 2019 as the plant will become operational in the same month. Shamsuddin Shaikh, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Sindh Engro Coal Mining Company (SECMC) told a select group of media persons during their visit to Thar that 94 percent and 92 percent work of the power project and mine project has already completed respectively. Prime Minister Khan is going to visit the coal power plant in January.
Shaikh added that the power project and mine project both are five months ahead of their schedule time and will add the first electron from Thar to the national grid by January 2019, he said. He said that Thar coal project has received unmatchable political support from all political parties and governments. Despite political difference former president Asif Ali Zardari and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had jointly visited Thar coal power project, he said.
Engro Power Thar Limited (EPTL) and Sindh Engro Coal Mining Company (SECMC) are the largest private investment under China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). To question regarding the cost of the project, he said that the cost of mine project is 20 percent less than approved cost. Currently we have removed approximately 154 meter of soil already and we would be able to extract coal from 160 meter, he said.
About the progress of power plant, CEO SECMC further said that EPTL connected its power plant with national grid to receive back-feed power supply for plant start up on August 1, 2018. By December 2018 or January 2019, first electron from Thar coal will be added to the national grid, he said. He said that the cost of per unit power production from Thar coal block II would reduce significantly after the phase II and III become operational. Currently 660 MW of power project is sub critical but we have requested the government that in phase II and phase III all projects should be supercritical which is three present more efficient than sub critical plants, he said.
To query about the life of power plant, he said that the life of power plant may be 20 to 25 years therefore the huge coal resources should not only be used for power production and it should also be used for diesel and gas production. "Gas is mandatory for production of Urea while our gas reserve is depleting past therefore government need to also start work on this direction in order to avert problem to be faced by fertilizer sector in future", he said.
Shaikh informed the media that out of current 4400 workers working at SECMC site, 75 percent workers are residents of Thar. Engro is operating 24 schools, constructing a 250 bed hospital and several water projects for the natives of Thar. He said that there is a heavy reliance on imported fuels which results in constant depletion of foreign exchange and insufficient control over the fuels supply chain. This inappropriate fuel mix leads to energy losses at each level of the value chain and inadequate recoveries lead to power outages, unaffordable electricity and circular debt.
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". The total reserves of block II are sufficient to support 5000MW of energy for 50 years; enough to pull the country out of the energy crisis.
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