One man’s trash is another’s treasure. This holds especially true when it comes to municipal waste power plants which can convert municipal solid waste (MSW) into electricity while getting rid of the garbage as well.
MSW contains three different categories of waste. These include biomass, materials such as paper, cardboard, food waste, leaves, as well as non-biomass combustible materials such as plastics and other petroleum made synthetic materials. Lastly, there are non-combustible materials including glass and metals.
Recently, the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) approved the grant of a generation license to the country’s first-ever waste to energy (WtE) power plant at Lakhodair, Lahore. The 40MW project is being built by Lahore Xingzhong Renewable Energy Company (Private) Limited.
When it comes to trash, Pakistan’s cities have plenty. This WtE project will get rid of almost 2000 tons/day off the streets of Lahore. Waste disposal has been problematic to say the least with limited spaces for landfills and existing ones already over-utilized.
According to Lahore Waste Management Company (LWMC) roughly 7000 tons of waste is created in the metropolis in a day out of which 1000 is given to DG Khan Cement. That’s 2.5 million tons of MSW in a year, so the project will have plenty of garbage to burn.
For the potential of MSW power projects, the United States is a great example. The country produced nearly 14 billion kilowatt hours of electricity by burning 29 million tons of MSW in 2015 using 71 WtE plants! So, Pakistan which is annually producing over 20 million tons of MSW has enormous potential in the field.
The regulator has announced a competitive upfront tariff of USc 10.007/kWh for WtE projects based on a project life of 25 years and a capex of US$3.5 million per MW. This is in line with comparable international benchmarks in the region. Nepra has placed an overall capacity cap of 250MW with the share of each province and Federal Territory has been kept at 50 MW each.
Other provinces should emulate Punjab and set up WtE power project at the earliest. Karachi, in particular, has plenty of garbage to go around and no proper waste disposal mechanisms, so Sindh policymakers should take an initiative in this regard.