LAHORE: The 425MW Nandipur power plant remained shut for four hours on Wednesday after the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) disconnected gas supply to it for defaulting on dues of around Rs900 million.

However, the plant resumed power generation after its administration made a partial payment, according to official sources.

“We paid Rs100 million on Tuesday and about Rs500 million on Wednesday. The remaining payment will be paid in coming days,” a senior official of the Gencos Holding Company Limited told Dawn.

He called SNGPL’s action a right step for the company had also to make payments to the suppliers of Regasified Liquefied Natural Gas in Karachi.

He said the plant took a couple of hours to resume operation after restoration of the gas supply from the SNGPL system.

The SNGPL’s managing director expressed ignorance about the issue. “I didn’t know about this matter. I was just informed by the officials concerned in SNGPL that the plant became idle due to some maintenance work,” he added.

Chinese firm Hydro Electric Power System Engineering Company took over the operation and maintainance control of the Nandipur plant on Jan 6.

Published in Dawn, April 5th, 2018