The 232MW Turkish ship-mounted rental power plant is still not fully functional even though it was supposed to start supplying power to the national grid at full capacity a month ago. The test operation of the rental power plant started after the installation work was completed and it is currently supplying almost 10MW to the Karachi Electric Supply Company.
However, sources said that the private company that owns the plant would run it at full capacity only when some financial issues are sorted out. Karkey, the foreign firm which owns the plant, completed tests and preparations, produced power on January 29, 2011 as an initial batch, but had to wait for the completion of administrative procedures related to the Pakistan Electric Power Company (PEPCO) and other relevant authorities to go up to full capacity, the sources said.
While waiting for the completion of certain procedures by various authorities of the government of Pakistan, Karkey has also offered to generate electricity for Karachi from the already commissioned parts of the plant while only charging the cost for fuel. The private company is also interested in selling an additional supply of 98MW out of the total capacity of the project that is around 330MW while the contractual capacity is 232MW.
It is worth mentioning that the first power-ship with the capacity to generate 220MW arrived in Karachi on November 17, 2010. The second one called Alican Bey, having a capacity 110MW, also reached Karachi to ensure additional supply.
