ISLAMABAD:
A 320 Megawatt (MW) power plant gifted by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has proven to be a white elephant for the government due to its poor efficiency in generating electricity. The latter is now contemplating handing it over to the private sector to generate power for industrial units, after public sector officials refused to dedicate gas to it; citing excessive wastage.
An official of the water and power ministry said the plant was very old and could generate power at only 18% of its capacity. Therefore, it would consume more fuel and generate less power.
Another reason cited for not utilising the plant was that the petroleum ministry had refused to allocate gas to it from indigenous resources. However, the petroleum ministry has expressed willingness to provide imported Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) as alternative fuel for the power plant.
“The 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,” a senior petroleum official said. He pointed out that the country was facing a gas shortage that had affected all sectors: therefore, gas could not be given to a plant that had such poor efficiency in power generation. However, he said that LNG could be provided to the plant to generate power.
However: “The LNG will not be a cheaper source of fuel, because it would also cost beyond $18 per million British thermal unit,” the power ministry official countered; maintaining that the plant’s inefficiencies would result in generating expensive power, resulting in a higher tariff for consumers.
According to an official, the Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FCCI) has offered to operate the plant in order to generate power for industrial units.
“The proposal is under consideration. We may hand over the power plant to the FCCI so that it can be installed and utilised in some way,” the official said. He clarified that approval will first be sought from the cabinet’s Economic Coordination Committee in this regard.
However, when contacted, Ministry of Water and Power spokesman Zargham Khan denied any moves to hand over the plant to the FCCI.
The power plant had been planned to be set up in Faisalabad – the country’s textile hub – which is currently able to meet only one-third of its electricity demand.
Former UAE Ruler Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan alNahyan had promised to donate the power plant to help increase power generation in the country. The power plant was not in use in the gulf state, as it had been replaced with a newer one.
Following his promise, UAE authorities had signed a memorandum of understanding with Prime Minister Raja Parvez Ashraf – then former federal minister for water and power – and worked out a detailed plan for the dismantling and shifting of the plant to Pakistan.
The first shipment of the power plant arrived at Port Qasim in September 2010, but no major work has been done on the installation of the plant since then due to authorities’ refusal to allocate gas from indigenous resources.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 17th, 2012.
COMMENTS (18)
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@Energy: Sheikhs may not require cheap publicity, but Pakistani govt do such things even on gifted plants. It may also be just the case of no kick back given for this free deal. It will be astonishing if it goes to private use for free and voila it starts working fine ;) its also worth noting most of the industry in Pakistan import used power generation sets and they do work fine for them!
the concept of Ummah is dead and buried, the question is when will we stop using it's skeleton to brainwash our awam...
No one is bothered about doing the right thing or if the country gets a bad name or investors leave in disgust, as long as a few millions fall into the right pockets.
looks like sheikhs tried to dump an old plant as gift and also got rid of old scrap. Its cheap publicity stunt and an insult to Pakistani people who are let down by thugs who accept such deals. They should ahve excused from this gift if it was not worth it weight as scrap! If the plant is fine and typical corrution is speaking out such things then missing of kick backs remind them of no corruption! hence the cries.
Scrap it in Kabari market of sher shah at per Kg value and send bak the money to UAE sheikh with a note of thank.
Best option is to give this plant to FCCI or another chamber so that they can operate and use its electricity without any burden on the government, and alleviating some of the load shedding.
This is ridiculous even if the plant equipment has been received for free, it will cost millions to install and it will cost twice as much as normal to operate. It will also cause twice as much environmental pollution per MW of electricity produced. Pakistan should have shown some self-respect and refused the equipment. It’s disappointing that while we are so keen to be part of the Muslim Ummah, the oil-rich Arab nations treat us as charity cases with their second-class equipment and expect us to be forever grateful for their mercy. (comment borrowed from You Said It)
Pakistan has become a junk yard for our Arab brothers. It is like throwing the toys our children played when they become grown ups.
same problem with all the RPP's? But shutting them all down in a reflex action was stupid and they will all sue us in international courts. After all, no matter however flawed, they are signed agreements which are legally binding (on both parties).
No wonder "foreign investment" is declining.
@Aftab Kenneth Wilson: in Abu Dahbi, and in other oil laden gulf states, they don't care much about the electrical efficiency, because of the cheep indigenous oil. But running a relatively inefficient plant in Pakistan on imported fuel is very costly. . So this is less a matter of 'Muslim brothers giving us scrap' or 'Wapda kick-backs' than a matter of policy failure, imo...
I have nearly served for 12 years in UAE-Abu Dhabi and all generators there work normally. I think there is something wrong with our own corrupt system in WAPDA because this was a gift and no kicks-backs were involved so it had to be declared failure. This means we don't even deserve gifts.
The article does not mention vital information about the age of the plant and the reasons of lower plant load factor(low efficiency). If the technology is obsolete or something else. The standard of news article needs improvement which may please be noted by all concerned.
Bravo Raja Rental. It was you who accepted that.
Our corrupt politicians and inefficient bureaucracy did not even want to realize what the problem was. It was not about generation capacity as we have/had enough power plants and the actual problem lied with the fuel prices. Higher fuel prices made our less efficient plants (mostly with WAPDA) more inefficient. Instead of investing in latest more efficient technology and controlling costly power theft, our rulers and policy makers found that an opportunity to make more money through Rental Powers, etc. . @ Nadir: For sure, Zardari is not the one who created these problems, but again for sure, he does not want to miss this opportunity to make more money. Rental Power is one good (actually worst) example.
what is Zardari has to do with it. Power shortage is due to over population , Money is wasting on war started by Muslim brother.
We must be grateful for the used table scraps our Muslim brothers give us. Its only because of Zardari that the plant is old and inefficient!