The Nandipur power project is said to be the victim of confusion that prevailed in the Ministry of Water and Power (MoWP) for the past two years with no one aware of who was calling the shots in the ministry. There are reports that the controversial Nandipur Power Plant has again been shut down as no electricity is being purchased from 425MW plant.
This embarrassing situation has emerged after the Prime Minister's office electronic media campaign which claims that the plant is producing 425 MW electricity due to which load shedding duration has come down approximately by an hour. The Prime Minister's office also cited Auditor General special audit report to discredit those critics who claimed the project as victim of mismanagement and corruption. An official told Business Recorder that due to merit order and sufficient available electricity the plant is run on as-and-when-required basis.
The official further stated that there are many other plants which are in such mode during winter. This way oil is saved and cost of production lowered which is passed on to consumers every month. According to sources, Federal Minister for Water and Power Khawaja Asif has expressed his anguish at a high-level meeting headed by Prime Minister over the perpetual meddling in the Ministry's affairs and when the Nandipur debacle came to light, top leadership of the ruling party directed the Ministry to sort out all issues including its defence irrespective of past intervention by anyone.
The project is generating 210MW to 450MW depending upon the availability of the treated furnace oil. The Ministry has taken charge and made the plant operational. Fuel oil treatment plant (FOTP) with the capacity to treat the furnace oil by 60 percent will be completed by the EPC contractor Dongfeng; and in case it fails to upgrade the FOTP, the government of Pakistan will cash in the guarantee of $35 million which Dongfeng has submitted for the Chechoki Malian power project. However, EPC contractor has started the process to upgrade the FOTP but in case it fails to deliver, the EPC contractor will be treated accordingly.
In pursuance of the directives of the Prime Minister for making the project operational at the earliest, the Water and Power Ministry came into action and hired US based company General Electric Company and its subcontractor Albario Engineering Private Ltd to run the plant. Some human resources of the contractor are also helping in enabling the project to generate electricity for the intervening period. This arrangement has been carved out under a daily-wage model.