The Balloki Power Plant is a 1,223 MW natural gas power plant completed in mid 2018 in

Pattoki Pattoki ( ur, ) is a city in the Kasur District of the Punjab province of Pakistan. It is the headquarters of Pattoki Tehsil, an administrative subdivision of Kasur District. Pattoki is known as the 'City of Flowers', due to the abund ...

, in the

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising ...

province of

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

. Groundbreaking was commenced on November 11, 2015, and construction was scheduled for completion by December 2017. The project utilizes regasified liquefied natural gas (RLNG) for fuel, with diesel as an alternate backup. A 40 kilometer long transmission line with a capacity of 500 kilovolts was also constructed between the new plant and a grid station in southern

Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest ...

. Bidding was open to international firms for the 82 billion rupee project. China's Harbin Electric Company was announced as the lowest evaluated bidder for the project on October 2, 2015, having offered a levellised electricity cost of 7.973 cents per unit, outbidding the Turkish conglomerate

Enka İnşaat ve Sanayi A.Ş. Enka İnşaat ve Sanayi A.Ş. (stylized as ENKA) is a Turkish engineering and construction company based in Istanbul. Enka provides construction and engineering services through its subsidiaries in approximately 30 countries across the world. As of ...

and GE Consortium which both stood in second with 8.185 cents per unit tariff, followed by China Machinery Eng Co (CMEC) & SEFC at 8.304 cents, and

Hyundai Engineering Hyundai Engineering and Construction Co., Ltd. (HDEC; ) is a major construction company in South Korea. The company was founded by Chung Ju-yung in 1947 as the Hyundai Civil Works Company and was a major component of the Hyundai Group. Hyundai ...

at 8.332 cents per unit.

Project Financing

Plans for the project call for private sector investment to construct the plant, with the private company then selling electricity to the government of Pakistan at pre-negotiated rates. It is not financed under CPEC projects. As the project is to be constructed largely by the private sector, financing loans for the project do not fall under the concessionary loan agreement which finances CPEC projects, but it will still qualify for subsidized loans with an interest rate of 5% which are to be dispersed by the

Exim Bank of China The Export–Import Bank of China (Chexim - China Exim Bank) () is one of two institutional banks in China chartered to implement the state policies in industry, foreign trade, economy, and foreign aid to other developing countries, and pr ...

. For comparison, loans for previous Pakistani infrastructure projects financed by the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Inte ...

carried an interest rate between 5% and 8.5%, while interest rates on market loans approach 12%.

Project Troubles

Along with its sister Bhikki plant, the site faces issues with power generation. The Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) was given notice of zero power generation by the plants and issued investigations. As of November 2019, the current PM of Pakistan Imran Khan wishes to privatize the Balloki power plant along with a few others.

References

{{Portal, Pakistan, Energy Natural gas-fired power stations in Pakistan 2015 establishments in Pakistan Energy in Punjab, Pakistan

Project Financing

Project Troubles

See also

References