The National Industrial Parks (NIP) Development and Management Company has decided to establish a 25 megawatt power generation plant which would be run on municipal agro waste and coal. The plant will fulfill the electricity requirement of the industries at the Rachna Industrial Park on the Lahore-Sheikhupura Road.
The Rachna Power Plant would be the first-ever power unit which would use waste as a source of energy.
The plant’s primary fuel would be RDF (Refused Derive Fuel) which would be prepared from a mixture of municipal solid waste and agro waste while the coal would be used as a backup fuel.
The concept of the modern waste to energy plant was proposed for the Rachna Power Plant which was very different from the old incinerators due to the technological progress of the last decade. This was disclosed by NIP Chief Executive Officer Mohsin Syed at a meeting at the NIP Regional Office in which investors of the Rechna Industrial Park also participated. The power generation facility would be located within the premises of the Rachna Industrial Park located, 7.5km Lahore-Sheikhupura Road on the Upper Chenab Canal.
The site is at a distance of 18km from the Lahore-Shekhupura Motorway Interchange, 24 km from the Lahore city centre and 40 km from the Allama Iqbal International Airport Lahore.
“An area of 10 acres has been earmarked for the power generation complex at the Rachna Industrial Park,” the NIP chief explained.
“The aim of the Rachna power project is to reduce pollution, preserve fossil fuels, reduce greenhouse gases and protect the ozone layer by utilizing the waste collected from the cities of Lahore, Sheikhupura and surrounding areas for power generation,” he said.
Mohsin Syed said that from a environmental standpoint the Rachna Power Plant would be highly desirable.
The project would be designed on the basis of zero discharge by installing an on-site evaporation pond and air emission from the plant would meet quality standards prevailing anywhere in the world.
Mohsin Syed said, “The municipal solid waste of Lahore and its surrounding areas will be collected, transported and recycled into fuel that could be easily stored, transported and efficiently burned at the plant site within the premises of Rachna Industrial Park.”
He added that a power generation complex was being proposed with total gross capacity of the 28 megawatts and the net capacity at the site would be 25.5 megawatts to provide operational flexibility and reliability in case of shut down of one or more units.
