The electricity situation of the commercial hub of Pakistan is likely to improve in the next couple of weeks as an additional supply of 450 megawatts will be added to the system by K-electric this month.
The 450MW of KE’s flagship 900MW RLNG-based BQPS-III project is at the final stage, and the necessary tuning and trials are being conducted by the engineers on a regular basis, according to officials.
“We are optimistic that the plant will come online by the end of this month,” project head BQPS-III Tahir Ali Khan said.
The plant is currently operational on a trial basis and has reached 298 MW of power generation on May 12, 2022, which is the highest generation in a single day since KE completed the ‘first firing’ of the unit and synchronized it with its network on 16 March 2022.
German engineers have been tuning the machine since the last two months. As per international standards, this process takes at least two and a half months. Tahir said:
The Germans want thorough tuning of the machine before they hand over it to the US. They do not comprise on policy, they have a worldwide reputation.
K-Electric and Pakistan LNG Limited (PLL) have already entered into a Gas Supply Agreement (GSA) for the supply of 150 mmcfd RLNG for the 900MW BQPS-III plant. We required an average of 130 mmcfd gas for the 900MW plant.
He said this plant will bolster Karachi’s power supply as the project is part of KE’s planned initiatives designed to bridge Karachi’s demand-and-supply gap by the end of the financial year 2021-22.
Director Communication KE, Imran Rana said this 450MW unit is crucial to secure the growing energy needs of Karachi which is the economic and commercial hub of Pakistan. He said the 2nd plant of 450MW is also under construction. He hoped that the unit will also come online by the end of December 2022.
KE is facing a power shortfall of around 300MW at peak hours, and in order to mitigate power needs, it has introduced a load-management plan under which the very-high loss and high-loss residential areas are being subjected to load shedding. These areas include mostly slums and shantytowns of the metropolis where power thefts are prevalent, he added.