The 1,320MW Jamshoro coal-fired power plant located in the city of Jamshoro city in Sindh Province, will be the first supercritical coal-fired power plant in Pakistan, once operational in 2023.

The project is being developed by Jamshoro Power Company Limited (JPCL) with an estimated investment of $1.5bn.

JPCL selected engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractors for the project in March 2018 and plans to commission the plant by the end of 2023.

Jamshoro coal-fired power plant location

The new power plant will be set up within the site of the existing Jamshoro Thermal Power Station (JTPS) in the northern part of Jamshoro. The site lies approximately 150km away from Karachi and 10km north-west of Hyderabad, Pakistan.

The power plant can be accessed by the N-55 Indus Highway, which connects Jamshoro with Karachi and Peshawar.

Plant make-up

The Jamshoro coal-fired power plant will feature two 660MW supercritical pulverised coal-fired units utilising super-critical thermal cycle with main steam pressure of 24.1MPa (megapascal) and reheat temperature of 593oC.

The reheat condensing, tandem-compound main steam turbine will operate at 3,000rpm. It will be rated at 660MW gross output at 10.2kPa (kilopascal) back pressure. The steam generator will have two primary air fans, two induced draft fans, two secondary forced draft fans and retractable soot blowers. The thermal insulation will be made of non-corrosive and non-asbestos materials.

The boiler to be installed in the plant will receive coal from six coal silos, which will have the capacity to support 12-hour operation at full load. The furnace exit temperature will be maintained below 1,100ºC at maximum boiler rating. A continuous loop type economiser will be set up with 2m-deep tube banks.

Two vertical shaft, regenerative-type air heaters will be installed to heat the primary and secondary air, and extract heat from the exiting flue gases. The flue desulphurisation system to be installed in the plant will be able to remove at least 95% of the sulphur oxides in the flue gases.

The plant will require 35,400m³ of water a day for each unit and will be installed with cooling towers to cool the heated circulating water. The cooling tower of each unit will have a base diameter of 110m and height of 140m.

Coal handling system

The coal required for the plant will be sourced from the Thar coal field. Each unit is estimated to require 6,800t/day of coal including 20% lignite and 80% subbituminous blended coal. Subbituminous coal will serve as the main fuel, while lignite will be blended in the ratio of 10-20% with subbituminous coal.

The subbituminous coal will be imported and unloaded at the Karachi Port. Up to four trainloads of 2,500t/d will be delivered to the site, which will have the capacity to store 540,000t of coal.

The coal will be stockpiled in two storage areas, of which the active pile will be of 40,000t and dead storage will be of 500,000t.

Contractors involved with Jamshoro coal-fired power plant

JPCL placed the $562m EPC contract for the power plant with the joint venture of Siemens and Chinese Harbin Electric International (HEI)  in March 2018. The contractual scope also includes operation and maintenance of the plant for five years.

GENCO Holding Company (GHCL) is the executing agency of the project.

A joint venture of Mott MacDonald and MM Pakistan was selected as the project implementation consultant for the project.

Financing

Asian Development Bank funded $900m for the Jamshoro coal-fired power project, while Islamic Development Bank and the Government of Pakistan are funding $150m and $450m respectively.