The Ministry of Water and Power is said to be making 'all out efforts' to hand over the outmoded 320-megawatt power plant 'gifted' by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to the private sector with the assistance of the Punjab government, sources told Business Recorder on Thursday.
Raja Parvez Ashraf, the then Minister for Water and Power( now Prime Minister) had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the relevant UAE authorities for the 'precious gift' and worked out a detailed plan for implementation of the agreement for its dismantling, packing and shifting of the plant to Pakistan. The sources said, the Planning Commission and National Engineering Services Pakistan (Nespak) are reluctant to support installation of this plant.
Secretary Water and Power Zafar Mehmood will hold a meeting with the Chief Secretary, Punjab, and top businessmen of Lahore to discuss how the plant can be run by Punjab's private sector which is facing acute power shortage. "The same quantity of gas, if used in the combined cycle plants, can generate more than double the electricity by the gifted units," the sources revealed.
UAE gifted plant produces 3MW of electricity by using one million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) of gas, while the industry average is 6MW per mmcfd. The sources said the combined cycle plant is obsolete and could generate power at just 18 percent of its capacity. The net efficiency of frame-5 gas turbines is about 25 per cent which is very low compared to the frame-6 gas turbines.
According to sources, May 2011 Nespak feasibility study states that the frame-5 gas turbines have almost outlived their useful life and hence the conversion of these turbines into combined cycle is not technically and economically viable. The Ministry of Water and Power recently approached the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources for provision of gas to UAE gifted power plant but the latter did not make any commitment in this regard. However, Petroleum Ministry expressed a willingness to provide imported Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) as alternative fuel for the power plant in 2013. The sources said that the process of getting 'obsolete' power plants as a gift from the UAE had started during Shaukat Aziz's tenure.