ISLAMABAD: The government is targeting to add a total of 1,100 megawatts of electricity generation capacity to the national grid by this summer.

This would include refurbishment of the Guddu Thermal Power Station to enhance its capacity from 900MW to 1,500MW, besides about 450MW from Chashma Nuclear Power Plant (Chashma III) and wind power plants.

At a briefing on the completion of enhancement of 270MW generation capacity of Guddu station, it was reported by plant authorities to the ministry of water and power that the entire Guddu plant had stopped generation in 2013 because of damage to its gas and steam turbines.

About 270MW was added to the system from Guddu station on Wednesday from the 415MW Siemens block comprising two gas turbines and one steam turbine.

This was a part of the government’s strategy to recuperate lost capacities of existing plants through rehabilitation of old plants, along with embarking on initiation of new power plants, said the secretary of Water and Power, Muhammad Younas Dagha.

An Iranian firm, MAPNA, was awarded the contract for rehabilitation of the 415MW Siemens Block plant at Guddu. Rehabilitation work started on the plant in November last year under strict timelines.

“With aggressive work plan followed, the first gas turbine was put on generation on Jan 16 this year while the second one started generation on March 9 this year,” Mr Dagha said.

With the completion of work on the two turbines, a total of 270MW of electricity has been added to the system from Guddu plant. Another General Electric gas turbine was also under rehabilitation at present and it would add another 100MW to the system next month.

The secretary said that tight timelines were being followed to add the maximum generation capacity by coming summer.

He appreciated the cooperation of MAPNA of Iran for delivering on deadlines committed by it. He said that another 450MW of electricity was also expected from Chashma Nuclear Power Plant and some wind power plants before summer.

Engineers working at the Guddu Power Station reported to the ministry that they were following the target set by the government to produce 1500MW of electricity from Guddu Power Complex by summer.

The meeting was told that keeping in mind the upcoming rehabilitation of Guddu units, 120 million cubic feet per day (MMCFD) of natural gas had been recently allocated to the Guddu Power Plant from the Mari gas field and aggressive work was in progress for installation of compressors to utilise this gas.

On top of that, work has also been launched for rehabilitation of Sui-Guddu gas pipeline to get additional gas for the complex, which has a generation potential of more than 1700MW.

The meeting was informed that a summary had already been submitted to the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet for supply of maximum gas to the Guddu plant to generate cheaper electricity.

Published in Dawn, March 12th, 2016