China Machinery Engineering Corp. (CMEC) successfully concluded a 7-day long reliability test run of the first unit of the 1,263-megawatt thermal power plant in Jhang. The 400MW Gas Turbine 1 (GT1) will start commercial operations on July 6 after some heat and cooling-related tests on stopped machines, an official told Gwadar Pro. The plant also successfully went through the initial capacity test and achieved 403 MWs capacity against a guarantee of 400MW, the official said. The unit has already been connected to the national grid, he said. The CMEC is engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor of the combined-cycle power plant owned by Punjab Thermal Power Ltd. (PTPL). The PTPL has also signed a 12-year operations and maintenance contract with China’s Harbin Electric Int’l for running the facility. The official said that the second gas turbine (GT2) is also undergoing various tests and is expected to achieve commercial operations date (COD) in a month. Also, the steam turbine (third unit of the plant) has been installed and is expected to start commercial operations in five to six months after going through different complicated tests and chemical cleaning procedures. The project is in the commissioning phase as a whole, he said. The plant has two gas and one steam turbines as well as two heat recovery steam generators (HRSGs) for enhanced efficiency. The plant will use Re-liquified Natural Gas (R-LNG) as primary fuel while High Speed Diesel as backup fuel.