Iran’s energy firm intends to set up wind power project

KARACHI: Iran’s leading energy firm has applied for a licence with the government to set up 50-megawatt wind power project in Jhimpir of Thatta district, expressing its intention to bring in more than $100 million in investment, officials said on Wednesday. 

Tehran-based Sunir Co, through a special purpose vehicle, approached the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority, seeking generation licence and tariff for its proposed wind power facility to be set up in the village, 114-kilometre from Karachi.

The $113 million worth of project is expected to start commercial operations by October 2017. There exists a huge wind corridor on the coastal belt across Sindh, starting from Gharo-Ketti Bandar up to Jhimpir. A number of entrepreneurs are coming forward to tap this huge natural resource of energy; fourteen of them in the Jhimpir cluster are set to shortly start the commercial operations.

In 2006, Sunir Co had showed interest in setting up a 50MW wind farm in joint venture. Later, the power, water, oil and gas company signed a memorandum of understanding with a Pakistani consortium of businessmen. They managed to secure a letter of intent from the Alternative Energy Development Board (AEDB).

A follow-up memorandum of understanding was signed during the visit of Iranian Energy Minister Parviz Fattah and as a result a special purpose vehicle, Iran Pak Wind Power Pvt Ltd, was established in December 2009 for carrying out the project.

The AEDB was to facilitate and lease out a land for the project to the sponsors after its availability from the provincial government. Until 2010, the AEDB couldn’t provide the right of way to the investors for some reasons. In 2010, the sponsors of the project approached the provincial government to speed up the process of land allocation.

Finally, the government provided the land for the project under a lease agreement and a fresh letter of intent was issued by the provincial government in March this year. Iran-Pak Wind Power is one of the two companies, which have no-objection certificate from the National Transmission and Despatch Company. Both of them had submitted grid study to the Central Power Purchasing Agency well before other nine projects, whose studies are yet to be approved. 

They are also to be issued grid certificate on fast track basis, paving the way for the finalisation of the upfront tariff. Currently, the wind projects, having 255.4 megawatts of power generation capacity, are operational across the country, including FFC Energy (49.5 MW), Jhimpir Zorlu Enerji Pakistan (56.4 MW), Jhimpir Three Gorges First Wind Farm Pakistan (49.5 MW), Jhimpir Foundation Wind Energy-II (50 MW) Gharo and Foundation Wind Energy I (50 MW) Gharo. The AEDB planned to add another 3,000 to 3,500MW of wind electricity to the system by 2018.