LAHORE: The rescheduling of delivery of high efficiency gas turbines by the American electric equipment giant, General Electric (GE), for the two federally-funded Re-gasified LNG-fired combined cycle power plants in Balloki near Kasur and in Haveli Bahadur Shah near Jhang is feared to delay their commercial operations by up to five months.

Both plants were originally scheduled to come online by the end of January 2018, adding 2,400 megawatts of electricity to the national grid as part of Nawaz Sharif government’s efforts to significantly reduce rolling blackouts in the country ahead of next general elections. But sources in the water and power ministry now believe their commercial operation date (CoD) may be delayed until May/June 2018 owing to the delayed delivery of gas turbines.

The American company is the sole supplier of three gas-fired power plants in Punjab, the third one being constructed in Bhikki, Sheikhupura, by the Punjab government to generate another 1,200 megawatts of electricity.

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“GE has intimated us (as well as ECP contractors) that the gas turbines for these projects will now arrive at the plant sites with a delay of two-four months instead of in April/May 2017,” Rashid Langrial, the chief executive officer of the National Power Park Management Company, a special purpose vehicle created by the water and power ministry to implement the two federal projects, told Dawn.

Under the contract, GE is scheduled to deliver two high efficiency 9HA gas turbines, as well as two heat recovery steam generators (HRSG) and one steam turbine for each of the three plants. So far it has supplied only one gas turbine for the Bhikki project. The arrival of the second gas turbine for the Bhikki plant is late by 45 days.

While the turbines and associated equipment are being supplied by GE, the construction of the plant in Haveli Bahadur Shah is being carried out by Power China and in Balloki and Bhikki by Harbin Electric International. In case of a delay in the CoD of the plants, both the ECP contractors may attract cash penalty of $91 million each per plant.

Sources in the ministry and an ECP contractor for one of the two plants believe the rescheduling of the supply timeline of the gas turbines could delay commercial operation of both the federal (and provincial) power projects. Mr Langrial doesn’t agree.

“The delayed arrival of the turbines is most likely to hold up simple-cycle operation of these plants planned for next summer. But it will not affect their original CoD at all,” he insisted.

“We can make up for the lost time by putting in place an accelerated timeframe for the on-time completion of the projects. The CoD will be delayed only if the steam turbines for the two plants don’t reach here on time. So far the supplier has not indicated any delay in the delivery of the steam turbines.”

With the country facing power deficit of upwards of 8,000 megawatts during summer and private investors reluctant to put their money in gas-fired plants, the federal and provincial governments had decided to invest in the three projects from their own pockets in order to deliver the much-needed stable power supply before the next elections.

Besides LNG-fired power houses, the government is targeting plant conversions (including conversion of Guddu and Nandipur to gas) and new build-ins (including coal power plants in Sahiwal and Port Qasim, two nuclear plants and Neelum-Jhelum Hydropower project and Tarbela-IV extension) to bring more than 10,000 megawatts of electricity into the grid before mid-2018.

However, some of these projects like the Neelum-Jhelum and Tarbela-IV have already been hit by delays to the chagrin of Prime Minister Sharif who had come to power mainly on promises of ending blackouts long before the end of his five-year term.

Published in Dawn, September 4th, 2016