Pakistan's KESC on Fast-Track Program to Reduce Karachi's Power Gap

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--In a bid to fulfill its commitment to improve Karachi's electricity supply and to reduce rolling blackouts, the new management of the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation Limited (KAR:KESC) (KESC) (Karachi, Pakistan) recently signed a supply and services contract with GE Energy (Atlanta, Georgia), a business unit of General Electric (NYSE:GE) (Fairfield, Connecticut) for a fast-track power plant project. The contract involves purchasing 64 GE Energy Jenbacher Type 6 gas engines to generate 180 megawatts (MW) of power, which will be fed to the local grid. This range of efficient Jenbacher gas engines, manufactured by GE Jenbacher (Jenbach, Austria), can run on natural gas and a variety of other gases, such as combustible industrial waste gases, biogas, sewage gas, landfill gas, coal mine gas and coke gas. The engines generally range in size from 1.8 MW to 3 MW. The precombustion chamber in the Type 6 engine ensures maximum efficiency with very low carbon-dioxide emissions.

GE's J620 natural-gas-fired engines will replace the existing obsolete turbines in the Korangi gas turbine power stations and Site gas turbine power stations. The first phase, involving 90 MW, is scheduled to begin operation by June 2009 while the second 90 MW is also scheduled to come on stream later in the same month. KESC CEO Naveed Ismail said that the Jenbacher gas engines were selected because they have already been used successfully in Pakistan and that the engines can be installed quickly. Further, GE has the manufacturing ability to meet KESC's requirements in a very short period of time. The project was arranged and finalized by Orient Energy Systems Private Limited (Karachi), GE's Jenbacher engine distributor for the region.

Karachi has been facing an acute power shortage. To handle the shortage of almost 500 MW daily, KESC has been imposing rolling blackouts or load shedding during the day to prevent the city's grid from being further weighed down. The installation of the new engines will take KESC one step closer to becoming self-reliant in terms of power generation. In addition, KESC has already added 96 MW to its Korangi thermal power plant and 50 MW in rental power.

While a base-load power generation unit supplies a steady supply of power, regardless of the grid demand, peak-load power generating units run only when there is a high demand for power, such as during hot summer days. Peak-load plants use gas turbines that burn natural gas at a high rate and cost. Therefore, these plants have low capital costs but high operating costs. Conceptually, since Karachi's power shortage has been a continuous one, base-load power plants running on more economic volume fuel rates are needed. However, since KESC has to fulfill Karachi's power demand on a continuous basis, the type of power generating unit does not really make a difference.

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