The Pakistani Government has inaugurated two coal-fired power plants totalling a capacity of 1,650 MW and located in the Thar Desert of the Sindh Province (southern Pakistan). The projects include the 1,320 MW Shanghai Electric power plant and the 330 MW Thal Nova power plant. They are expected to generate over 11 TWh/year.

The two power plants, which required an investment estimated at US$3.53bn, are part of the Thar Coal Electricity Integration project and were built under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) framework. the 1,320 MW power plant, developed by China’s Shanghai Electric Group, started commercial operations in late February 2023 and is expected to generate about 9 TWh/year of electricity, enough for 4 million Pakistani households. The 330 MW ThalNova lignite-fired power plant, developed by HUBCO, Thal Limited, Novatex Limited and China Machinery Engineering Corporation (CMEC), started producing power in December 2022 and entered commercial operations in February 2023.

At the end of 2021, coal represented 12% of Pakistan’s installed capacity with 4.6 GW and 17% of its power generation. In 2020, the government of Pakistan announced that it would not build new coal-fired power plants. However, 2 GW of coal capacity is still under construction and nearly 10 GW are under development in the country.