ISLAMABAD      -      Private Power and Infrastructure Board (PPIB) has achieved the commercial operation date (COD) of country’s largest Thar coal based 1320MW Shanghai Power project which has been implemented under the ChinaPakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). In an announcement issued here, the Private Power and Infrastructure Board (PPIB) said that it has achieved commercial operation date (COD) of country’s largest Thar coal based power project located at Thar Block-1. Having the generation capacity of 1320MW, Shanghai Power project has been implemented under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

The project has been developed by Thar Coal Block-1 Power Generation Co., a fully owned subsidiary of Shanghai Electric. The project has attracted valuable foreign direct investment of $1,912 million which is expected to generate 9 billion units of electricity per annum with anticipated savings of Rs 250 billion/annum.

It is worth mentioning here that the Mine Financial Close (FC) of the project was achieved on 30th Dec, 2019. The Implementation Agreement (IA) of Pakistan’s largest Thar coal-based power generation project of 1,320MW power generation capacity had also been signed in December 2019. The 1,320 MW Shanghai Electric Thar Block-1 Coal Project has been developed under the umbrella of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) through Project Company i.e. TCB-I while M/s Shanghai Electric Group Company is the main sponsor of this project. The project is utilizing Thar coal supplied by Sino Sindh Resources Limited which is executing coal mining operations for coal extraction in the Thar coalfield Block-I.

The project was earlier scheduled to start generation in March 2021; however it was delayed by the previous government of PTI. However, after coming into power the incumbent government had accelerated work on the project, and it has started generation in December 2022. Successful commissioning of this project is another example of PPIB’s effectiveness towards promoting Thar coal for power generation, spokesman of the PPIB said.

With this latest addition, total production of electricity from four Thar coal based power generation plants has reached 2,970MW while 330MW Thal Nova project is also under testing and expected to achieve COD soon. PPIB has already facilitated commissioning of three projects with a total capacity of 1,650 MW, including the 660 MW Engro, 660 MW Lucky, and 330 MW Hubco Thar power projects, all of which are at Top of NPCCs merit order list, said the spokesman. Commissioning of the project will result in significant savings of foreign reserves and reduce dependence on imported fuels and the basket price of electricity shall also be reduced significantly, the spokesman claimed.