The Central Development Working Party (CDWP) will take up the PC-I for land acquisition for the installation of a 1,200 MW solar power plant at Sher Garh Tehsil Chubara District Layyah with a total cost of Rs. 2.65 billion without foreign exchange component (FEC).
Official documents available with ProPakistani revealed that the project was discussed in a pre-CDWP meeting, held on under the chairmanship of Member (Energy), wherein it was decided that the project, having a total cost of Rs. 2.65 billion without FEC, will be presented in the forthcoming CDWP subject to receipt of compliance of following decisions:
- Ministry of Energy (Power Division)/National Transmission and Dispatch Company will change the source of financing to a cash development loan (CDL) instead of a grant from the public sector development program
- Ministry of Energy (Power Division) /Alternative Energy Development Board will include the cost of land in a request for proposal (RFP) package for carrying out the competitive bidding of the subject solar plant
- Power Division/NTDC will submit a summarized report for CDWP regarding the suitable selection of the most optimum sites for the project with respect to power evacuation infrastructure and will ensure that determination of land rates is based on notified DC rates.
The PC-I is submitted for the consideration of CDWP at a total cost of Rs. 2.65 billion without FEC based on the decisions taken in the pre-CDWP meeting.
The Planning ministry has observed that 4,800 hectares of land will be required for a 1,200 MW solar power project which comes to four hectares of land per MW. The sponsors are requested to justify the requirement of land as it seems to be on the higher side keeping in view the latest innovation in solar technology.
The Power Division (Sponsor Agency) has responded that the land requirement for the proposed solar photovoltaic project has been considered in view of the recently commissioned 100 MW Zhenfa solar photovoltaic project at Chaubara and the ongoing 150MW Helios HNDS Meridien solar projects at Sukkur.
The total land for Zhenfa solar project is 450 hectares’ and for 150 MW solar projects at Sukkur is 720 hectares. In view of the above, it is intimated that the proposed land requirement of four hectares per MW at Muzaffargarh is lower than for both 100 MW Zhenfa and 150 MW solar projects at Sukkur in consideration of improvement in technology and due to economy of scale for large solar plant size at Layyah. The input from AEDB on the land requirement of the subject 1,200 MW solar project may also be obtained.
Planning Commission agrees to the proposal for replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy-based projects. However, the sponsors are requested to justify whether they have carried out the technical and operational analysis for the proposed plant prior to land acquisition for the said power plant.
Moreover, NTDC is requested to share the recommendations of the load flow study for the 1,200 MW solar power project and certify that there will be no transmission constraint in future for the evacuation of power from the said power plant along with the 1,200 MW thermal power station in Muzaffargarh.
Power Division has responded that the said solar project is proposed with the concept to replace the expensive thermal generation substation with cheaper solar generation. NTDC has conducted in-house load flow studies to propose an interconnection scheme for the evacuation of power from the proposed solar project site to the grid.
As per analysis, it is found that there shall be no transmission constraints in the evacuation of power from the said solar project under normal and single outage contingency (N-1 contingency) conditions. It is added that further detailed analysis for the proposed project will be carried out by using the actual plant data/parameters after its submission by the project developer, in accordance with the grid code.
Excellent, future is green and Choubara is suited for such projects. zanfa project is working