HPSL to provide O&M services to upcoming Thar coal-based power plants

Hub Power Services Limited (HPSL), a wholly owned subsidiary of Hub Power Company limited, is poised to provide operation and maintenance (O&M) services to upcoming Thar coal based power plants.

Also, the company has signed an agreement to provide cost effective O&M services for onshore & offshore plants in JV structure with General Electric (GE), USA.

HPSL - one of the few local O&M service providers - is currently operating the 1202MW Hub Power Plant, 225MW Narowal Plant and 84MW Laraib Plant owned by The Hub Power Company Limited.

CEO Hub Power Services Limited (HPSL), Tahir Jawaid told a group of journalists that the advent huge power inflow in last five years has created a greater opportunity for O&M industry for the local and foreign players.

With the surge in installation of new power plants during the last three years, he said Pakistan has witnessed a rapid increase of its power generation capacity from 23,337MW in 2015 to 33,836MW in 2019.

"We are looking forward to provide O&M services to upcoming Thar coal based power plants including 330 MW Thar Energy Limited and 330 MW ThalNova Power Thar Limited. Commercial Operations Date (COD) of these plants has been fixed for 2021." he said.

Tahir Jawaid said that HPSL is capable of exploiting the USD approx.400 million of potential O&M annual revenue that includes O&M Manpower Services and scheduled Outage Revenues expected in the power sector of Pakistan.

The recently commissioned four plants from 2017 to 2019 that have added 4,620MW in the power generation capacity of the country include 1320 MW Sahiwal Coal Power Project, 1320 MW Pakistan Port Qasim Power Project, 1320 MW China Power Hub Generation Company Limited and 660 MW Engro Powergen Thar Private Limited.

"These four plants created cumulative O&M revenue (tariff) of $ 160 million annually," he said.

Furthermore, the upcoming plants which are expected to be online by 2023, will create an O&M revenue of $ 150 million based on the 3,930MW inclusion in the capacity.

These plants include 330 MW Thar Energy Limited (Commercial Operations Date 2021), 330 MW ThalNova Power Thar Limited (Commercial Operations Date 2021), 660 MW Lucky Energy Limited (Commercial Operations Date 2021), 330 MW Siddiqsons Energy Limited (Commercial Operations Date 2022), 1320 MW Thar Coal Block-1 Power Generation Co Ltd (Commercial Operations Date 2022), 300 MW Gawadar Coal Project (Commercial Operations Date 2022) and 660 MW Jamshoro Coal (Commercial Operations Date 2023).

Tahir informed that all these operational and upcoming coal power plants comprise of state-of-the-art environmental coal technologies like ultra-super critical and Super Critical with most advanced emission control systems and high overall thermal efficiency.

Talking about the foreign companies, which are running or will do the O&M of various new power plants in Pakistan, Tahir informed that major foreign players are TEPC/CEEG Consortium, Power China GANSU Energy, Huaneng Shandong Ruyi, China Huadian and HEI - Siemens Consortium.