A HIGH-LEVEL stakeholder meeting was held at the Thar Block-1 mine site to advance discussions on the supply of indigenous Thar coal for the 660 MW Jamshoro Power Project, as per a press release.
The meeting was attended by Chairman of K-Electric Limited (KE) Shaheryar Arshad Chishty, Managing Director of the Thar Coal Energy Board, Tariq Ali Shah, CEO of Sino Sindh Resources Limited Li Jigen and CEO of Jamshoro Power Company Limited Muhammad Abdul Vakil, as well as representatives of the Private Power and Infrastructure Board and other relevant stakeholders.
Discussions focused on coal-supply arrangements for the Jamshoro project during its interim blended-coal operations and following its proposed conversion to full utilisation of Thar coal. The initiative was also considered in the context of KE’s wider generation transformation programme, including opportunities to align suitable assets within its own portfolio with indigenous fuel sources.
Recognising the wider importance of the conversion of the Jamshoro project to Thar coal for Pakistan’s power sector, KE funded and commissioned an independent, bankable feasibility study by the German engineering consultant Dornier Power and Heat GmbH. The study established the technical and economic viability of the proposed conversion and estimated that it could generate economic benefits of approximately $3.2bn over the project’s remaining life, based on the study’s underlying assumptions. The conversion could also significantly reduce imported-coal requirements and conserve valuable foreign exchange.