LAHORE: Chinese companies building the 1,320MW Sahiwal coal-fired power plant, the first-ever such a project in Pakistan, expect power generation next year which will be the ‘cheapest’ in terms of tariff and environment friendly.

Though the consortium of two Chinese companies which started work on June 9, 2015, is raising basic infrastructure at over a thousand acre land reserved for the plant with an official target of completing it by Dec 25, 2017, officials say the provincial chief executive wants it to be completed much earlier.

Around 3,000 workers, including 1,000 Chinese, are working at the site which is guarded by police personnel.

“We are going to offer 8.1 cents per electricity unit to the Pakistani government under an agreement with the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority and this is the cheapest rate in Pakistan”, says Song Taiji, the Chief Executive Officer of Humeng Shandong Ruyi (Pakistan) Energy (Pvt) Limited.

He told Lahore-based reporters at the site on Friday that the company would produce and sell the electricity for 30 years on a BOT basis before handing over the plant to the Punjab government. He said average life of the plant was 30 years approximately.

Song said the upfront tariff was agreed after Nepra involved international experts and bidding process. He said the plant was being constructed with an estimated cost of $1.8 billion jointly sponsored by two Chinese companies.

He said the coal-fired power generation was much popular in China as more than 80 per cent electricity production came from coal there.

Song said the reason behind importing coal from Indonesia and South Africa was the non-availability of standard coal in Pakistan. “Though Pakistan has huge reserves of indigenous coal but we cannot use them at the moment because of absence of excavation technology and quality material”, he added.

He said the coal would be transported from Port Qasim, Karachi, to the site via rail while canal water with the help of a reservoir would be used in the power generation process. To a question, Song claimed the solar power was costlier than coal’s.

He said the super critical technology would be used in the plant which required high temperature for the perimeter of steam and less coal consumption.

Regarding environmental concerns, he said the height of the Chimney had been set at 180 meters for safe emission.

He said two per cent component of sulphur dioxide in the imported coal would be brought down to zero level to avoid environmental hazards. “We will have proper sulphurization process in the plant for less carbon emission.”

Song further said plants having capacity of more than 300MW fell in the category of super critical technology, adding in Pakistan the coal generation share was even less than one per cent compared to developed countries where share of electricity from coal was about 50 per cent, which meant more environmental pollution.

Song, whose company is the largest in China to generate coal-fired electricity, said he had security concerns before coming to Pakistan last year but now he was comfortable.

“We now feel secure in Punjab and will continue our work without any fear. I rate Pakistan as my second hometown”, Song told a questioner.

Asked why coal-fired technology was being introduced in Punjab when it was becoming redundant in other countries of the world, he said coal-fired power was not an old-fashioned rather it was very advance technology being used by China and other countries.

“This plant is not sub-critical rather super critical which burns less coal and gives less emission as for as environmental protection is concerned.”

Nadeem Aslam Chauhdry, who is energy coordinator for the Punjab government, told reporters that the chief minister had asked the company to complete the plant much earlier than the deadline. “We cannot give you the exact date but we are determined to do the job in less than two and half years.”

He said the federal government had announced upfront tariff for the coal power projects and the company had accepted the tariff of 8.1 cents per unit irrespective of its cost estimates.

He claimed the tariff would not remain exactly 8.1 cents in future as, at the time of agreement, the cost of coal was $ 120 per ton and it was now $60 per ton which implied that the power tariff was the cheapest for this plant as compared to other fossil fuels.

Chauhdry told a questioner that an army brigade was being raised to secure projects linked with the China Pakistan Economic Corridor and this power plant also included in the CPEC.

Published in Dawn, January 2nd, 2016