The Private Power and Infrastructure Board (PPIB) on Friday toed the official line by allowing construction on fast-track 1200MW RLNG-based power project at Muzaffargarh, Punjab, which was earlier approved by the Cabinet Committee on Energy (CCoE) on September 15.
This was decided in the meeting of PPIB’s board of directors held under the chairmanship of Water and Power Minister Khawaja Asif.
The minister said the government believes in the policy of facilitating investors, and did not want them to face any hurdles or delays during the processing of the projects. He said 1200MW reliable and affordable electricity will be added to the national grid by the year 2018, which will contribute significantly to eliminating load shedding.
The minister said that the policies of the government were delivering positive results. The projects which were started in 2013 were heading towards completion and the nation will witness the end of chronic load shedding by 2018.
The meeting was informed that the RFP document for the project has been prepared and it will be advertised in the coming days, and bids will be invited through a single stage, two envelope bidding approach.
The decision of establishing 1200MW RLNG-based power project at Muzaffargarh was taken in the light of the advice of the CCoE. Water and Power Ministry had conveyed to initiate the process of advertisement through PPIB for inviting prospective investors for installation of combined cycle power plant of 1200 MW based on RLNG to address the power shortfall challenges.
PPIB Managing Director Shahjahan Mirza briefed the board on the project located at Muzaffargarh near the existing Muzaffargarh Thermal Power Station of NPGCL having gas turbines based combined cycle technology. The power plant will have minimum annual availability of 92 per cent. Open cycle operation is scheduled to start by February, 2018, whereas the full combined cycle operation will start by the end of 2018.
This is a viable option to address the electricity demand-supply gap in early 2018 and ensuring elimination of load shedding.
Furthermore, due to the highly efficient and state of the art technology of the plant, this will be able to replace old and retiring power plants in the public sector.