KARACHI: Continuing its mission to secure Karachi’s energy future and provide its 3.2 million consumers with safe and reliable power, K-Electric (KE) has successfully implemented a ‘Black Start’ capability for the first time in their generation fleet at the Korangi Power Complex (KPC) that is responsible for generating 247 MW of electricity for Karachi.

The technology allows power plants to go from shutdown mode to generating power without any assistance from the external power grid, making the utility self-sufficient in restoring power in the case of black outs.

This is akin to having a standby generator to jumpstart the main generation complex, which will then energize KE’s fleet and network. The Black Start facility has been incorporated by only a handful of power producers in Pakistan and now KE has also incorporated this facility in its own generation fleet.

This will allow KE to reduce dependency on IPPs as earlier KE has ensured black-start facility for its consumers through arrangement with of its IPPs namely Tapal and Gul Ahmed.

Additionally, KE is also equipped with islanding facility at KPC as well as its BQPS-II to ensure quick power restoration in case of black outs.

Before proceeding for Black Start Project, KE commissioned all machines of KPC on High Speed Diesel (HSD). The HSD Project which begun in October 2020 was completed before the summer of 2021, in which the successful operation of this Power Plant were experienced on dual fuel and uninterrupted power supply from the plant as KE was able to mitigate gas constraints.—PR