KARACHI: August 5, 2021 – Engro Powergen Thar Limited (EPTL) power plant has been declared as one of the ‘World’s Top Coal Plants’ (coal-fired category) by the prestigious forum of ‘POWER Magazine’ – an integrated energy vertical – being published from North-America, since 1882.

The EPTL plant, a 660 MW power plant in Thar Block II, has won this international accolade and recognition for adopting global best-practices and meticulous mitigation processes. The EPTL power plant was evaluated amongst 40+ coal power plants from across the world and was declared as a Top Coal Plant.

The pioneering coal-fired power-plant – and the first plant in the country to run on indigenous Thar coal – has cutting-edge technology, as it has gained critical importance for accelerating the progress of the region of Thar and positively impacted the whole of Pakistan. With a 90% utilization factor, the plant has remained fully functional and available since its commissioning in July 2019 with a net electrical dispatch of approximately ~8.5 TwH in its second year. The electricity generated by the project is promising economic-benefit for the country, as it is enabling energy-abundance and spurring social-development through provision of local employment and other socio-economic opportunities in Thar.

The ISO 14001 certified plant is compliant to IFC and national emissions standards, with a safety management system inspired by OSHA [Occupational Safety and Health Administration] and DuPont PSM [Process Safety Management]. The project is also enriched with state-of-the-art environmental control safety systems and a quality-control laboratory. The site is also protected by the strongest cybersecurity framework as per international safety benchmarks and employs effective risk-mitigation strategies.

The Chairman of EPTL – Ahsan Zafar Syed stated that: “This award is a testament to the technological excellence and outstanding performance of our project and its value-chain. We are committed to playing an inspirational role in solving the energy-crisis and transforming the Thar-desert. While this is an important achievement for us, perhaps the single largest accomplishment for the EPTL plant remains the fact that it continues to deliver on its promise of providing indigenous electricity to the nation, providing energy security, and saving the country’s precious Foreign Exchange through import substitution with total savings to date being in excess of USD 100 million”

The Chief Executive Officer of EPTL – Syed Manzoor Hussain Zaidi said that: “It is an honor for us to be recognized as one of the Top Coal Plants in the world. We are thankful to the Power Magazine for appreciating our project’s ‘proof of concept’ that electricity can be produced from Thar coal. The huge potential of Thar coal has been demonstrated successfully, as EPTL is the first plant in Pakistan to utilize this lignite coal for production of electricity”.