Gul Ahmed Wind Limited

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IFC is considering to invest up to US$15.0 million through a combination of A Loan (US$11.7 million) and equity (US$ 3.3 million) to Gul Ahmed Wind Power Limited, which is is a special purpose vehicle set up to develop a 50MW wind power generation plant located in the Jhimpir Wind Corridor, Thatta District of Sindh Province in Pakistan (the “Project”). The total project cost is estimated up to US$ 132 million. The Project involves engineering, design, procurement, construction, turbine erection, grid tie-in, commissioning and operation and maintenance of the 50 MW wind power plant. The Project will be an independent power producer and will sell electricity to the National Transmission and Dispatch Company Limited (“NTDC”) under a 20-year Energy Purchase Agreement (“EPA”). NTDC’s payment obligations under the EPA will be guaranteed by the Government of Pakistan. The Project is expected to generate an annual average of 154 GWh of electricity (on a P50 basis as per independent engineer’s estimates).Incorporated in Pakistan, GAWPL is owned by Gul Ahmed Energy Limited (“GAEL”, 51%) and InfraCo Asia (49%). GAEL has developed a 136 MW RFO power plant in Pakistan, which has been in operation for the last 17 years. GAEL is mainly owned by Gul Ahmed Group – a leading diversified Pakistani family business group whose main business interest is in the textiles industry but which identified renewable energy as part of its growth strategy in the power sector. InfraCo Asia Indus Wind Pte Limited is a 100% owned subsidiary of Infraco Asia Development Private Limited (InfraCo Asia) –which is a donor funded infrastructure development company headquartered in Singapore. InfraCo Asia is financed by the multilateral development organization Private Infrastructure Development Group established to finance and support private investment in infrastructure, members of which include European development agencies and the World Bank Group including IFC. The Sponsors are well known to IFC through prior investment in GAEL (# 4998), committed in 1995 and in Metro Power – a 50 MW wind project (# 33496), committed in 2014.The project site is located in the south of Pakistan between Karachi and Hyderabad, about 100 km inland from the coast, and is within Jhimpir Wind Corridor where good wind resources have been identified and the Alternative Energy Development Board of Pakistan (“AEDB”) is promoting multiple wind farm projects. AEDB released the land from the Government of Sindh and is sub-leasing to 11 independent power producers (50 MW each). GAWPL leased 647 acres (about 262 ha) of land (about 11 km in length and 0.2 km in width) from AEDB for the Project. The project site is mostly arid stony wasteland with rocks, sand and gravel. No settlement exists within the project site. The Project will use 20 wind turbine generators (WTGs), Nordex N100 2.5 MW HCV (2.5 MW each, 99.8 m rotor diameter, 80 m hub height) manufactured by a German company called Nordex. An individual WTG will require about 2.5 acres of land. For 20 WTGs, the land use is thus likely to be about 50 acres out of the total 647 acres of land leased to the Company. The site will be provided with 11 km of internal roads to service the WTGs and a10-11 km dirt approach road from the existing highway. The approach road is fully constructed for two existing wind farm projects and one under construction wind farm project. The Project will be designed and constructed by Engineering, Procurement and Construction (“EPC”) contractors (Nordex and Descon). The Project will include an operation and control building and a 132 kV substation, which will be built within the project site. A 22 kV collection underground system will be installed to connect WTGs to the substation. The generated power will be transferred from the project’s substation to either the NTDC / Hyderabad Electric Supply Company 132 kV system or to a 220 kV substation to be built by NTDC. The connecting transmission line will be built and operated by NTDC. According to the Company’s initial examination, no major E&S risks are anticipated in relation to the NTDC transmission line. Actual construction of GAWPL project will start in the first quarter of 2015 and is estimated to start operation in the mid-2016. The Company submitted CDM Project Design Document (estimated to achieve 93,783 ton CO2 equivalent per year reduction) and this was approved by Designated National Authority in August 2013.