Agreement signed for operation, maintenance of Nandipur plant

ISLAMABAD: The agreement for long term operation and maintenance of the 425 Megawatt Nandipur Power Plant has been signed between Northern Power Generation Company Limited (NPGCL) and MS Hydro Electric Power System Engineering Company of China (HEPSEC) for a period of 10 years.

According to a press release the decision to outsource the operation and maintenance of the Nandipur Power Plant is on recommendations of Regulator and a policy decision by the government to outsource the operation and maintenance of new power plants in line with prevalent industry practice to reduce expenditures and bring about latest and efficient practices in power plant management.

The Nandipur Power Plant has been fully operation since July 2015 and it is currently operating on furnace oil.

Work is already underway to convert the plant’s operation to natural gas.

To this end, 88KM pipeline is being laid and work is also ongoing on the plant site to convert it to gas operation.

The Plant s conversion to gas operation which is expected to be completed by the end of April 2017 will significantly improve plant’s performance reduce operating costs and result in overall improvement.

With this conversion the generation capacity of the plant will increase from 425 Megawatt to 525 Megawatt.

NPGCL through international competitive bidding invited experienced contractors to bid for the long term operations and maintenance contract for the Nandipur Power Plant.

After evaluation and scrutiny of the bids, HEPSEC’s bid was found to be the lowest responsive bid out of the four bidders.

HEPSEC is a subsidiary of Power China Group and has wide ranging experience of providing operations and maintenance service for power plants all over the world.

The Operation & Maintenance Agreement between HEPSEC and NPGCL ensures that the plant will provide its guaranteed electrical output and will run at optimal efficiency over the next decade.

This Operation & Maintenance Agreement will prove a catalyst in bringing efficiency and best market practices in the management of the GENCOs.

It is pertinent to mention here that NPGCL is a government owned corporate entity working under the management of the GENCO Holding Company Limited.