An independent 110 megawatts First Tri-Star Modaraba Power Plant, which is being installed at Hawksbay, will not benefit loadshedding-hit Karachi. The electricity from the private power plant, to which National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) has recently issued the liaisons, would be supplied to Pakistan Electric Power Company (Pepco) directly.
According to the liaisons issued to A R T Modaraba Management (Private) Limited, the managing company of the Combined Cycle Power Plant (CCPP), the power of the generation facility will be dispatched to the system of NTDC through the system of Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) at 132 kV level by constructing a new transmission line measuring approximately one kilometre by making an in-out of 132 kV Baldia-Kanupp line at CCPP.
According to sources, work on the new plant has been initiated and it would be commissioned by December 31, 2010. The new IPP, they said, having the power generating capacity of around 110MW, is dual fuel-powered and is being installed at Naclass 255, Tapo Gabopat, Hawksbay, Karachi.
The 232MW barge-mounted power plant, to be arrived here by next month was also to benefit Pepco no sooner did it get supply from the plant and a reduction of the same amount of megawatts would be made by Wapda in its supply to KESC, sources added. Though, both new power projects were being initiated in the city, the metropolis was not to be benefited from these plants.
However, sources claimed that electricity supply from the new IPP would also be given to KESC, while reducing the same amount of power from the supply of Pepco to the privately-run company. KESC, however, would get supply from the gas-fired IPP at cheaper rate as compared to the same it would get from the coming barge-mounted one, a rental power plant, they added.
The public utility, sources claimed, had been forced by the government to get the costly power from the barge-mounted plant as compared to the cheaper supply from Wapda. Official sources in KESC have also confirmed that the company has nothing to do with the new IPP as it was Wapda's project and the power supply from the plant would also connect to the national grid, through passing the Nazimabad interchange.