Sahiwal Coal Power Project | |
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Official name | Sahiwal Coal Power Project |
Country | Pakistan |
Location | Sahiwal, Punjab |
Coordinates | 30°42′55″N 73°14′20″E / 30.71528°N 73.23889°ECoordinates: 30°42′55″N 73°14′20″E / 30.71528°N 73.23889°E |
Status | In operation |
Construction began | February 2015 |
Commission date | 3 July 2017 |
Construction cost | $1.80 billion USD |
Owner(s) | Huaneng Shandong and Shandong Ruyi Science & Technology Group |
Thermal power station | |
Primary fuel | Bituminous coal |
Power generation | |
Nameplate capacity | 1,320 MW |
Website www |
The Sahiwal Coal Power Project is a coal power plant project 15 kilometers (9.3 mi) to the northeast of Sahiwal in Pakistan's Province which commenced full operations on 3 July 2017. The power plant is Pakistan's first supercritical coal power plant, and consists of two 660-megawatt (890,000 hp) plants for a combined capacity of 1,320 MW in the first phase, and is to be followed by a possible second phase which will include two 1,000-megawatt (1,300,000 hp) plants.
Though the plant is now considered to be part of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) which was announced in April 2015, symbolic ground breaking for the project actually preceded the announcement of CPEC and took place in May 2014, as the government of Punjab in March 2014 invited bids for the construction of two 660MW power plants in order to help alleviate Pakistan's energy shortfalls.
The plant was built by a joint consortium of China's state-owned Huaneng Shandong which will own 51% of shares, and the Shandong Ruyi Science & Technology Group, which will hold 49% of shares. The Government of Pakistan will purchase electricity from the consortium at a tariff of 8.3601 US Cents/kWh. The project was built on a build, operate, transfer basis in which the plant's ownership will be transferred to the Government of Punjab after 30 years of operation.
The project site spans a total of 690 hectares (1,700 acres), given by the Government of Punjab free of charge. The project consists not only of the power plants themselves, but also includes the construction of a railway from the village of Yusuf Wala to the site for exclusive use of the plant.
The plants each consist of one boiler, steam turbine and generator, and are fueled by sub-bituminous coal which will be offloaded at the project's purpose-built rail terminus. The plants generate a total of 1,320 megawatts of electricity, with a gross efficiency of 42.11% by the use of a supercritical steam generator operating at temperatures of up to 580 degrees Celsius.