KARACHI: The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) on Tuesday held a rescheduled hearing on K-Energy’s coal generation licence.

It was explained by the two Nepra officials present at the hearing — acting chairman Habibullah Khilji and member retired Major Haroon Rashid — that the hearing for the generation licence application of K-Energy (Pvt) Limited was being held again as all issues pertaining to it were not heard earlier. The licence was for the conversion to coal generation of the two Bin Qasim power units. This second hearing saw experts from K-Electric addressing the received and heard concerns of the stakeholders which included environmental issues.

It was explained that the two Bin Qasim units, units 3 and 4, having an installed capacity of 420 megawatts, were to be converted to coal generation and K-Energy was implementing the coal conversion project as an independent power producer (IPP). Stakeholders wanted to know if K-Energy even had the capacity to undertake coal generation. Since they are old, low-efficiency units, stakeholders feared that they might violate the United Nation standards on carbon emission levels. The future of employees working at the plants was also a cause of concern. It was also said that the sponsors wanted to sell their own coal, therefore they wanted the units converted. Also there were concerns whether the proposed tariff was appropriate.

Shahid Ahmed Khan of KE provided some explanations to those concerns along with Imtiaz Ali, a director of the company. It was pointed out about K-Energy’s capacity to undertake coal generation that they did in fact have inherent capacity and where they didn’t, they would get technical expertise from outside and also engage with people with organisation management expertise. Engineering, procurement and construction contractors would also be called in where needed.

Asked if K-Energy had done coal generation before, it was said that they had such experience. Some stakeholders wanted to know if K-Energy qualified as an IPP and it was pointed out that they were a typical IPP. But Chaudhary Mazhar Ali, general secretary of the KESC Shareholders Association, said K-Energy was contradicting itself as it called itself a power company not an IPP.

On the environmental issue, it was explained by the power utility that they had approval from the Sindh Environment Protection Agency (Sepa). As for the UN, it was pointed out that Pakistan was not among the 37 countries bound to follow their standards, so it didn’t apply to them.

At this retired Major Haroon Rashid of Nepra quickly said: “So, are you saying that it is fine to hurt the environment because Pakistan is not bound to adhere to UN standards?”

Turning to the stakeholders, he said: “Rest assured, we will still send out KE’s answers addressing your concerns to you asking for your comments and only then we will proceed with a decision. We won’t decide anything until you are satisfied.” The Nepra officials also promised to upload all framed concerns regarding coal power generation and the answers on their website within a day.

Saquib Ijaz Hussain, KE’s expert on environment, said they had carried out studies on emissions using dispersion models. “And we have found out that primary pollutants are well within the permitted levels. We even took the emissions to a height of 150 metres to meet the international standards.

About the concern over the employees working at Bin Qasim, it was said that the operation would see E-Energy enter into an agreement with K-Electric to secure their jobs.

Later, when the stakeholders were given a chance to speak, some of them said that they had no problem with KE’s looking for more ways to generate power and address the power shortfall.

Dr Qazi Ahmed Kamal, representing the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said: “We welcome all good things coming to Karachi.” Still, he said he was a little displeased with Nepra for taking so long in making a decision. “Kindly decide if it is good or bad, but come to a conclusion. Don’t let this debate drag on,” he said.

He also questioned the usability of Thar coal in power generation at Bin Qasim and also advised Nepra to check, double check and triple check that the emission levels because anything amiss in their calculations could wreak havoc for the people.

Arif Bilwani, another consumer, said he was happy to see so many questions being addressed by experts. “But I want to say that KE instead of going for converting old power plants should look into getting new ones. A new plant will raise the efficiency level while lowering the emissions. So why go for obsolete technology,” he said.

Anil Mumtaz, a former employee of the KESC, pointed out that the two units had been closed for the past 26 months. He said: “Why are you [Nepra] even issuing a licence for these? What action have to be taken against KE over the closure of these units,” he said aloud. He also asked KE: “How do you study emission values of closed units?”

Published in Dawn, November 12th, 2014