The Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) has successfully synchronized first of the three gas turbines of the 560 MW Bin Qasim Power Station-II and plans to start commercial operation after completion of commissioning tests.
To sustain commercial operations, the BQ 2 facility requires a quota of 130 MMCFD, which had been earlier committed to KESC.
Following successful commissioning, the first gas turbine will add 115 MW of capacity to the KESC grid. The commissioning of the machine will be completed on schedule, in line with the precedence of timely capacity addition established by the current management. The second and third gas turbines will be commissioned in successive months to facilitate a total of 345 MW capacity additions to the KESC grid by September 2011. While these machines will operate in open cycle mode for now, addition of a steam turbine in the first quarter of 2012 will mark the completion of the entire project with a total of 560 MW capacity operating in combined cycle mode. The overall thermal efficiency of the station will be amongst the highest in the region for a project of this magnitude.
“With this unprecedented investment into the private energy sector of the country, we now stand vindicated in front of our customers who can see that our commitment to enhance our generation capacity has come true. This is a great moment in KESC’s history and this will open a new era in the private energy sector,” Tabish Gauhar CEO of KESC, said.
The near completion of the project on a war footing is all the more remarkable, considering the odds that KESC has had to overcome in the form of violence and operational disruption orchestrated by the union miscreants.
One of the largest under construction private power plants in Pakistan, the BQPS-II has been designed using proven energy efficient technology. The turbo machinery for this plant has been procured from GE (France) and Harbin Power Engineering (China).
In addition to the BQ 2 project, the present management has already completed three separate projects that have enabled an addition of 450 MW capacity to the grid: the 220 MW CCPP Korangi inaugurated by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani in 2010 and two gas engine based plants of 90mw each at KGTPS and SGTPS.
Beyond capacity addition, major overhauls and comprehensive maintenance plans of the six generation units at Bin Qasim Power Station have brought in more than 50 additional megawatts to KESC’s existing generation capacity.
This state of the art project is based on a massive $450 million investment, which has been financed through multi-lateral funding partnered through international financial institutions namely, Asian Development Bank (ADB), International Finance Corporation (IFC), and a syndicate of Pakistani banks comprising of National Bank of Pakistan, Habib Bank Limited and Standard Chartered Bank.