LAHORE: The fuel source for Nandipur Power Plant has been shifted to liquefied natural gas (LNG), as of Saturday, in what has been termed a successful transition process.

The Nandipur Power Plant had been operational since July 2015 and was operating on furnace oil but was not able to produce at capacity. Following conversation to LNG the plant will produce an additional 100MW increasing its capacity to 525MW. 

In order to shift the plant from furnace oil to LNG, an 88KM pipeline was laid. The conversion, besides increasing output will also reduce operating costs.

The conversion plans and plans to shift fuel source and increase capacity first came to light in February 2017 when a long-term operation and maintenance agreement for the plant was signed with Northern Power Generation Company Limited (NPGCL) and MS Hydro Electric Power System Engineering Company of China (HEPSEC) for a period of 10 years.

At present, the Nandipur Power Plant is running on LNG on a testing basis, which will continue till May 1, before it launches the commercial output officially, the sources added.