Karachi, April 9, 2019: Chairman Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Bilawal Bhutto Zardari will inaugurate Thar coal power plant in Islamkot, in the Tharparker District tomorrow.
The power plant is part of
The federal government is likely to be represented on the occasion by Federal Power Minister Umer Ayub Khan.
The Thar mining project is categorized amongst the ‘early harvest’ projects under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) to generate electricity utilizing Thar’s untapped coal reserves. The successful extraction of coal from Thar Block-II started in June 2018 from 141 meters below the surface.
Despite facing uphill task of extracting coal from between two layers of aquifiers, the team of professionals meets all the tight deadlines and makes sure availability of required quantity of coal for power generation. It has been done despite working in harsh terrain of Thar.
The total planned mining capacity of the project will be 20.6 MT/annum with a capacity to scale it to 30.4 MT/annum while the power generation capacity is projected to be 3,960 MW at full capacity. The mining project is planned to be executed in 5 phases with phase already completed.
In the first phase, the Mine has been developed for a capacity of 3.8 MT/annum whereas two 330 MW sub critical plants are now operational; out of which 1st unit was commissioned in third week of March, 2019 and 2nd unit in the second week of April, utilizing the complete capacity of 3.8 MT/annum.
In the second phase the mine will be further expanded to 7.6 MTPA and additional 2 x 330 MW of power will be added whereas in the third phase Mine will be expanded to a capacity of 15.2 MT/annum with an additional power generation capacity of 1,320 MW.
Similarly, in the fourth phase the mine will be expanded to a capacity of 22.8 MT/annum with additional 1,320 MW added to the system while in the fifth and final phase Mine is expanded to its full potential of 30.4 MT/annum with additional 1,320 MW added into the system bringing the combined total to over 5,000 MW of power generation through Thar coal from Block II. The levelized tariff of Thar coal based power is stated to be at 5c/kWh, leading to foreign exchange savings of up to USD 2.0 billion per year.
