The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) has approved the multi-year tariff for new K-Electric (KE) 900 MW power generation plant at Bin Qasim area for the next five years. This is the same tariff which the Shanghai Electric (SE) was demanding from the federal government.
While addressing a press conference, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of K-Electric Monis Alvi said that Karachi will receive 2,100 MW power in its supply-system during the next three years and for this purpose, the K-Electric is working day and night to complete these power stations.
“The K-Electric will receive 2,100 MW electricity in its system in next three years.” The federal government will contribute 1,400 MW electricity.
Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Amir Ghazyani and Deputy Chief Generation Abbas Hussain were also present in the press conference.
The CEO claimed that construction work of National Transmission & Despatch Company (NTDC) is being done and supply from this network is expected to start from March this year. Meanwhile, the government is also updating the transmission lines of 220 MW from Jamshero (Hyderabad) for smooth supply of power during summer.
Despite COVID-19 challenges, Monis Alvi briefed the media that K-Electric is working to accomplish the construction of 900 MW power station for which KE has also imported gas turbines. The new power plant will have both options to generate power on gas and diesel. Furthermore, he said that we are also considering to convert KE’s existing power generating units on diesel.
He informed, “the KE wanted to generate its own power for Karachi city, but the government is the main hurdles and forced us to get their surplus electricity for Karachi.
“The K-Electric cannot provide low-cost power to Karachiites despite the new power plant.” Monis Alvi said. He said that government authority NEPRA is the sole authority that sets the electricity price for the power supplying companies. The CEO claimed that the commissioning test of Bin Qasim Power Plant-III will be completed next month.
He further claimed that the K-Electric has desired to set up its own gas terminals for its new power projects and in this connection, the two kilometres gas connection pipeline will be completed soon. The CEO said that Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) is delaying this project, but we are coordinating with them at every level.
The load-shedding in Karachi would be reduced in the coming years because of new power generation units. Currently, in winter, the K-Electric is supplying 1800 MW power to Karachi according to its demand and this need will surge to 3900 MW in summer, the CEO said. KE is expected to generate 3100 MW this summer while 800 MW would be shortfall.
Regarding the gas deal, the CEO informed that it would be signed soon. The construction work of setting up a new power plant takes times while the gas agreement would be signed after its completion. The KE and SSGC are working on a new term of reference (TORs) on new gas agreement.
The CEO said that we have taken several measures to avoid any incident during rains in Karachi and in this regard we have thoroughly checked 178,000 electric poles till now while checking of other electricity poles is still going on.
CFO Amir Ghazyani said the government has to pay Rs 80 billion dues and we have requested the government to pay interest on our dues.
The SSGCL, the Oil & Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) granted a licence to K-Electric to construct and operate a 2.4km pipeline for transportation of natural gas/liquefied natural gas to its upcoming 900 MW power plant at Bin Qasim.
