Model Town Society nearing deal for new power plant

The Model Town Society (MTS) has come close to finalising a deal with a foreign company for setting up a gas-generated power plant in the society, MTS president Col ® Tahir Hussain Kardar told Daily Times on Saturday.

He said the deal was in its final stages. He hoped the deal would be finalised in the next 15 days. He said the MTS had decided to set up its own power plant because continuous load shedding by the Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA), especially in the summer troubled its residents. Kardar said work on the installation of the plant would start as soon as the deal was finalised. He said the plant’s installation would take 15 months. He said the electricity generated by the new plant would cost the MTS Rs 3.25 a unit.

An MTS official said currently, the MTS was buying electricity from the WAPDA at Rs 5.78 a unit and supplying it to its members at Rs 4.25 a unit for the first 100 units and Rs 5.25 each for more units. Residents who were not members of the society paid around Rs 6 a unit. Commercial users were charged Rs 9.23 a unit. Consumers caught using the electricity for commercial purpose illegally were charged Rs 20 a unit. The MTS’s electricity bill in summer was between Rs 220 million and Rs 235 million and in winter, it was between Rs 100 million to Rs 150 million.

The society had tried to strike a deal with the Sui Northern Gas Company (SNGC), but the company had refused to provide gas for the plant, an MTS official said, adding that the SNGC had said that it was already short of gas and could not take up any extra burden.

The official said that after the SNGC’s refusal, the MTS approached a company working on a project worth Rs 5 billion at Shorkot. He said that if the deal were made, the company would provide MTS frozen gas to run the plant. He said a Rs 1 million feasibility report had been prepared for the project. He added that four pieces of land of 20 kanals each were being considered for the setting up of the plant.

The official said that MTS had 230 transformers, a penal room, wires and the required land and all it lacked was the plant. He said the power plant project would cost the MTS around Rs 1.3 billion, which would include the establishment of a grid station. The plant would generate 220 million units of electricity a year, he said, adding that MTS residents currently used 8.5 million units a year. The official said that the excess electricity would be supplied to other power suppliers including the Lahore Electric Supply Company (LESCO). He said that if the MTS became a partner instead of a purchaser in the deal, it would earn a lot by selling the excess electricity.

Source:  Daily Times