Private Power and Infrastructure Board greenlights Thar Coal Block-I Project

ISLAMABAD, Nov 22 (APP):The Private Power and Infrastructure Board (PPIB) Friday approved execution of Implementation Agreement (IA) with Pakistan’s largest thar coal based power generation project and also allowed extension in financial closing date of the project as proposed by the PPIB.

Minister for Power Omar Ayub Khan said that the government was bringing revolution in power sector to make it efficient, sustainable, affordable and competitive while chairing the 126th meeting of PPIB, said a press release issued here on Friday.

The government was promoting hydro and coal along with wind and solar for lowering the tariff for which maximum facilitation was being given to the investors remaining within the legal bounds, he added.

The minister pointed out that the incumbent government focused on removing the bottlenecks and improving the ease of doing business for encouraging investors to initiate new projects and expand their operations in Pakistan.

The 1,320 MW thar coal based power project by Thar Coal Block-1 Power Generation Company (Pvt) Limited (TCB-1) holds significant standing among the fleet of CPEC projects.

The project is at advance stages of development as critical milestones which include issuance of Letter of Support (LOS) and signing of Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) have already been achieved and project is likely to start power generation by March 2021.

Tariff of Rs 8.0924 has already been given by the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA). The project will be connected with Matiri-Lahore Transmission Line which is currently under construction and scheduled to be operational by March 2021.

Managing Director PPIB, Shah Jahan Mirza briefed the board that under the vision of government, PPIB had started issuing Letters of Support under Tripartite Letter of Support (TLOS) Regime of Power Generation Policy 2015 and PPIB had issued TLOS to 7.08 MW Riali and 8 MW Kathai hydropower projects within a short period of one month which demonstrated PPIB’s aggressive approach towards harnessing hydro potential.

The tariff of these projects has been fixed by NEPRA as Rs 8.1811 and Rs. 8.0868 respectively. He also remarked that 700 MW Azad Pattan Hydropower Project had recently been included in the CPEC which would expedite the development of project for its completion by June 2026. NEPRA has already determined tariff of Rs 7.4064 for the project.

The board was apprised that PPIB was already processing Pakistan’s first private sector Matiari-Lahore Transmission Line Project and would be able to facilitate future Transmission Line projects in the private sector under the Transmission Line Policy 2015, as and when required by the system.