First of KESC’s 3 French gas turbines arrive

KARACHI: The first gas turbine for the Karachi Electric Supply Company’s 377-million-dollar 560MW combined-cycle power plant at Bin Qasim arrived on  Saturday and the other two are expected mid July.

“We are determined to aggressively deliver on our commitment to improve the electricity supply for the people of Karachi,” said KESC CEO Tabish Gauhar in a statement that was released to the media.

The Bin Qasim plant is the largest thermal power project being constructed in Pakistan. KESC hopes that the addition of 560MW will help it overtake its competitors. The total production will be 1820MW.

The plant is being financed with a combination of equity funded by shareholders, and long term loans provided by the Asian Development Bank, the International Finance Corporation, and a syndicate of Pakistani banks comprising the National Bank of Pakistan, Habib Bank Limited and Standard Chartered Bank. Initial letters of credit for the project were opened by a consortium of banks, including the long term lenders, Dubai Islamic Bank and Faysal Bank.

The shipments of associated auxiliaries have already landed and the ground work is in full swing, said KESC. The turbines will be installed in August. The first turbine will start providing KESC’s network power in June 2011, the second in July, the third in August.The combined cycle operation will start in March 2012.

The environmental monitoring plan is also being put to work. KESC is carrying out a detailed design engineering review. The pilling work for the gas and steam turbines has been completed, the foundation has been poured and the intake and outfall channel work and fuel oil tank foundation works are in progress. The steel structure for the fuel tanks and gas turbines has also arrived.

The three gas turbines are manufactured by General Electric, France, and the steam turbine by Harbin, China which is the engineering procurement and construction contractor for this project. When Abraaj Capital took over KESC in the third quarter of 2008, one of the most important targets was to expedite the construction of the 560MW plant. This plant can be described as one of the most economical as well as the most efficiently combined-cycle projects in Pakistan, as compared to other projects being constructed using the same technology.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 4^th, 2010.