12 investors bid for 1500 MW power project

Islamabad: Twelve local and foreign investors have submitted their bids for establishing power projects to generate 1,500 MW. This was stated by Ministry of Water and Power the Secretary Muhammad Ismail Qureshi at a bidding ceremony held at the Private Power and Infrastructure Board (PPIB).

The bids were opened in presence of the bidders and the media to ensure transparency. PPIB Managing Director Fayyaz Elahi and other government officials were present on the occasion. A total of nine bids (3,060 MW) were received for Package 'A' (new power projects), whereas three bids for Package 'B' (rental projects), (779 MW) have been received.

A bid evaluation committee, comprising the representatives of Ministry of Finance, National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra), Water and WAPDA/PEPCO and PPIB will process these bids.

The PPIB Managing Director, speaking on the occasion, said that to address the power shortages on urgent basis, the government had decided to invite fast track project proposals from private sector for 1,500 MW to be processed under international competitive bidding, which consisted of two packages namely, Package 'A,' consisting of fast track IPP projects of 1000 MW cumulative power generation capacity within the jurisdiction of PEPCO, and Package 'B,' consisting of fast track rental power projects (upto 500 MW cumulative capacity), including barge mounted power plants near Karachi.

The request for proposal (RFP) document for these projects were prepared by the PPIB after thorough discussions and feedback from all relevant stakeholders, including leading power plant equipment manufacturers, IPPs and WAPDA/PEPCO etc.

Ismail Qureshi said that these measures were being taken to meet the short-term power requirements, while measures were also being taken to cater to the medium to long-term power needs.

He said the response received to our initiative had been very positive, and not only local investors, but also foreign investors from the US, Canada, UAE, Turkey and Mauritius had submitted bids to invest in the power sector.

The bid evaluation committee has been mandated to process these bids in a timely manner so as to award letter(s) of support (LoS) to the IPPs and letters of award to the rental projects by August 15.

The IPPs will start their operation by August 2009 and whereas the rental projects are expected to start their commercial operation by February 2009. He said that after commissioning of these projects, the country would be able to bridge the gap between demand and supply for ending load shedding from next year.