ISLAMABAD: The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) on Monday granted generation licence to Lahore Xingshong Renewable Energy Company Ltd for setting up of 40-megawatt Waste-to-Energy near Lahore at an upfront tariff of about 10 cents per unit.

To be located at Lakhodair, Lahore, the project will deploy state-of-the-art incineration type generation facility and the most suitable waste to energy technology, said an announcement made by Nepra.

It said the project will reduce 2,000 tonnes per day of the city’s municipal solid waste to generate electricity and “is seen as silver bullet to address the municipality’s waste and energy needs of the country”. The regulator has already announced a Competitive Upfront Tariff of 10.007 cents per unit (kWh) for waste to energy projects based on 25 years operational period, with overall capacity cap of 250MW, with 50MW share to each province and Federal Territory.

“Successful implementation of the project will pave the way for other such initiatives to solve pressing waste disposal problems and challenges of limited space for landfills and gas emissions resulting cleaner cities and health life,” Nepra said.

Lahore Xingshong Renewable Energy Company Ltd – is a company registered in Pakistan and owned by Chinese sponsors, particularly China ENFI Engineering Corporation, Metallurgical Corporation of China and Chengdu Xingrong Environment Co and is setting up the plant with debt-equity ratio of 75:25.

This is first of the five waste-to-energy projects to be set up in major cities. Five major cities are producing about 35000 tonnes of waste per day, including almost 15,000 tonnes in Karachi, 10,000 in Lahore and 5,000 tonnes in Islamabad. Peshawar and Quetta waste production is officially recorded at around 3,000 and 1,000 tonnes respectively.

Such huge quantities are arguably affecting negatively not only the agriculture land but water resources and overall environment as well, said a Nepra official.

Therefore, Nepra keeping in view the environmental issues and abundant waste decided to offer upfront tariff for generation of electricity from municipal solid waste through a consultative process with stakeholders like Punjab Power Development Board, Alternative Energy Development Board, Central Power Purchase Agency and the ministries of energy and climate change.

Based on upfront tariff, the consortium applied for the generation licence that was also processed through public hearings.

Published in Dawn, July 17th , 2018