Pakistan set to build first-ever 700MW solar power plant to facilitate CPEC SEZs

ISLAMABAD: The government has decided to establish first-ever 700 megawatt (MW) dedicated solar power plant at a cost of $630 million to feed two special economic zones (SEZs) in Punjab, officials said on Thursday.

Board of Investment (BOI) played a key role in the signing of a tripartite memorandum of understanding (MoU) between state-owned enterprises including Faisalabad Industrial Estate Development & Management Company (FIEDMC), Power China Jiangxi Electric Power Construction Co Ltd (JEPCC) -a subsidiary of Power China and Henan Zhonghui Electric Power Engineering & Consulting Co Ltd (HZEPEC).

Officials in BOI said the Chinese companies had proposed to set up a Photovoltaic Power Project of 700MW for the two SEZs of FIEDMC namely M3-Industrial City and Allama Iqbal Industrial City.

The provisionally estimated total investment of the project is $630 million; wherein Chinese companies will come as financers and SEZ developer/FIEDMC could provide land on lease or to be an equity investment partner in the project.

According to sources, the project will be completed in three phases as per the electricity demand of the SEZs.

They said the FIEDMC would provide the estimated power requirement for both the SEZs, along with the status of infrastructure inside and outside the SEZ for power distribution from FIEDMC.

“It is planned to adopt BOLT (build-own-lease-transfer) cooperation method for the project which is a first ever BOLT model in Pakistan,” the officials said.

They said it was under the sapient guidance of the ex-secretary BOI, Omer Rasul, now posted as Secretary Energy, Power Division, and facilitation of the Project Management Unit of CPEC Industrial Cooperation in BOI that this MoU was signed.

Sources said this MoU would pave way for private SEZs to have their own captive power plants for uninterruptible, affordable, and sustainable power supply.

The SEZ Act 2012 also entitles the SEZs developers to establish their own captive power generation facility. The present government also accords top priority to solar/alternative energy generation to increase the share of green energy in the overall energy mix.