On Oct 7 local time, Pakistani TAPAL 30MW Wind Farm was officially put into commercial operation after passing its 168-hour trial run.
The wind farm, located in the Taluka and Thatta districts, Sindh, in eastern Pakistan, is equipped with 20 wind turbines. It boasts a standalone capacity of 1.5MW and a total installed capacity of 30MW. It is the first wind power project in Pakistan wholly financed by local banks. During the seven-day trial run, the availability of the wind turbine equipment in the wind farm reached 99.99 percent and the utilization rate of the BOP equipment was 100 percent, setting a new record for the availability of all wind power projects in operation in Pakistan.
Power limitations have consistently been a key factor constraining the economic and social development of Pakistan. In recent years, Sino-Pakistani energy cooperation has tightened under the impetus of strategies such as the Belt and Road Initiative and China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. After years of market cultivation and development, POWERCHINA Huadong Engineering Co., Ltd. has signed four EPC projects for wind power generation for four consecutive years from 2012 to 2015. The TAPAL project is the second wind power project successfully put into operation in Pakistan by POWERCHINA Huadong Engineering Co., Ltd. after the Sapphire project, providing a yardstick for the subsequent implementation of similar projects.
In three years, POWERCHINA Huadong Engineering Co., Ltd. has signed four EPC projects for wind generation in Pakistan, dispatched upwards of 50 management and technical backbone staff, and hired more than 30 local engineers to set up the program cluster management mode. During the implementation of the project, POWERCHINA Huadong Engineering’s project team, together with Pakistani staff, worked in the desolate Gobi Desert under a scorching summer sun braving temperatures exceeding 40 degrees centigrade, and battling sand storms. They overcame many difficulties such as tight deadlines, severe contract, and harsh natural conditions, difficulty in design approval and the complex approval process for power grid. By virtue of sound professional expertise and good organization and communication skills, they have won the recognition and praise from the owners, power grid authorities, supervisors and international companies, and built a sound image of POWERCHINA Brand in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.
As a result, the management team of Pakistan’s wind power projects won the title of National Worker Pioneer awarded by the All-China Federation of Trade Unions in 2015.
Above the Arabian Sea rages nature’s gift of wind energy — a fresh which now brings endless clean energy. It shall facilitate the economic development of a friendly neighbor and benefit millions of people in this densely-populated country.
