Thar coal to fuel future power projects

The government on Wednesday decided that it would only use the coal reserves in Thar for future power generation, while converting existing power plants for coal-based power generation.
The landmark policy decision was taken by Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf while chairing a meeting of the Thar Coal and Energy Board at the Prime Minister’s Secretariat here.
The meeting was informed that the Sindh Engro Coal Mining Company (SECMC) and the Engro Corporation were working on an integrated coal mine and a power project with an estimated cost of 1.3 billion dollars at Block 2 of Thar Coal Project. The project would mine approximately 6.5 million tonnes coal annually, besides constructing a power plant of 1200 megawatts. The prime minister also decided in principle to provide a sovereign guarantee to the SECMC, a joint venture of the Government of Sindh and the Engro Power, and directed the Ministry of Finance to make required arrangements. Ashraf said that in the present financial situation, there was little space for providing sovereign guarantees. However, this is a strategic decision which has to be taken for meeting the growing energy requirements of the country, he stressed. The Sindh government had requested the federal government that the conversion of existing 800 MW and new 600 MW power plants at Jamshoro be designed on Thar Coal specifications.
The prime minister directed the Ministry of Water and Power to sign within a week a Coal Off-Take agreement between GENCO and SECMC for the Asian Development Bank financed conversion of the existing 800 MW and new 600 MW thermal power projects at Jamshoro.
“The history will not excuse us if we do not take correct decision in time,” the prime minister said. “Today we have laid the foundation of an energy policy, which is based on our indigenous resources and will lead to savings of huge foreign exchange presently being spent on the import of fossil fuels to run our thermal power plants,” he said. In addition, this policy decision will ensure energy security that has been eluding us for such a long time, he added.