Pakistan is looking forward for low-cost CPEC power plants from China for energy security and affordability, says a report published by Gwadar Pro on Friday.
The report says, as Pakistan is struggling to provide uninterrupted electricity to its 220 million people amid soaring generation costs due to skyrocketing fossil fuel prices in the international market, the country looks to the low-cost China-sponsored power plants to avoid an impending energy crisis.
Shanghai Electric’s 1320MW Thar Coal Block-1 (TCB-1) power plant, the 720MW Karot, and 870MW Suki Kinari hydropower plants, as well as the K2 and K3 power plants in Karachi (1100MWs each) will lower the average cost of electricity in the overall energy mix and ensure sustainability in Pakistan’s power sector, a senior official in finance wing of the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) told Gwadar Pro.
The TCB-1, expected to come online in early 2023, will use indigenous Thar coal at $35-36 per ton as against the imported coal price of $188 in January, $226 in February, and $160 in April 2022.
The fuel cost component for the TCB-1 will be around Rs 3.5 per unit with the consumer tariff of Rs 8 per unit. On the other hand, the power plants running on imported coal have sought Rs 12 per unit in fuel cost for April 2022 with the consumer tariff of above Rs 17, the official elaborated, referring to the power purchase data for the month issued by the Central Power Purchasing Authority (CPPA).
