A Senate panel met under the chairmanship of Senator Nauman Wazir Khattak and decided to restore “wrongly designed” 150MW local coal- fired Lakhra Power Plant on the basis of Balancing- Built-Own-Transfer (BBOT)- a terminology coined by the head of the panel.
Senator Ahmed Khan and Officials and technical experts of Lakhra Power Plant and Karachi Electric (KE) participated in the meeting through a video link. A few officials and experts of National University of Sciences and technology (NUST) were also present
The Panel concluded that the government will not privatize the plant but will take measures to revive it. Two Chinese companies have already shown interest in the rehabilitation of the plant. In 2003, the plant has been leased to Pakistan Power Resources but the government but the plant’s labor union got a stay order. In 2013, Supreme Court scrapped the lease.
Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Lakhra was directed to conduct a cost analysis of the plant. The engineers of Lakhra Power Plant who recently visited the coal-fired power plant at Port Qasim informed the panel that the technology used in the new plants is far more modern than the one used in Lakhra Power plant which was designed according to 30 per cent ash and 7.5 per cent Sulphur. The Plant was designed on 17 per cent fuel efficiency and was operated by Chinese company M/s Dongfang.
Representatives of NUST urged the panel to purchase boilers from Heavy Mechanical Complex (HMC) which can manufacture boilers of a capacity of 50 MWs. HMC has already met orders from Strategic Planning Division (SPD).
